Incident response

Incident response (IR) is WSDOT's traffic incident management program with a mission to clear roads and help drivers. The program works in partnership with other agencies such as the Washington State Patrol to achieve this goal. IR is instrumental in operating the transportation system efficiently.

WSDOT's Incident Response program clears traffic incidents safely and quickly, minimizing congestion and the risk of secondary incidents. The statewide program has a biennial budget of $12 million. The increase from $9 million reported in Gray Notebook 63 (September 30, 2016) was due to new funding passed by the Legislature and Governor for additional IR trucks and drivers. The IR program now has roughly 59 full-time equivalent positions and 69 dedicated vehicles. Teams are on-call 24/7 and actively patrol approximately 1,300 centerline miles (3,400 lane miles) of highway on major corridors around the state during peak traffic hours. This covers approximately 18% of all state-owned centerline miles statewide.