CARSON CITY, Nev. –The Nevada Department of Transportation and Nevada State Police are reminding motorists to drive attentively, slow down and move over for traffic response vehicles during national Crash Responder Safety Week, held Nov. 13-17.

Governor Lombardo has proclaimed the week Crash Responder Safety Week in Nevada, recognizing the law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, road maintenance crews, public service utility workers, and tow operators who place themselves in danger while performing valuable, life-saving work on Nevada’s roadsides.

Traffic incidents are the primary cause of death for police officers and emergency medical responders nationwide, with 51 roadside first responders struck and killed last year on the nation’s roads. To help keep drivers, incident victims and first responders safe, Nevada traffic incident response partners remind motorists that Nevada law has long required drivers to slow down, proceed with caution, and if possible, move to the far lane when passing a vehicle(s) pulled over on the side of the road. This includes NDOT and other road work vehicles with flashing amber or non-flashing blue lights on.

Nevada law also requires drivers involved in minor, non-injury fender benders to safely move their vehicle out of the travel lanes when possible, helping reduce the chance of secondary crashes for themselves and other drivers.

“The Nevada State Police, Nevada DOT, first responders and tow truck drivers are committed to providing the highest level of public safety services to our motoring public,” said Nevada State Police Highway Patrol Colonel Conmay. “When you see flashing lights on our roadways, please slow down and move over so that everyone can remain safe.”

National statistics show that for every minute a freeway lane is blocked, the resulting traffic congestion takes four minutes to clear, and the chance of more severe secondary crash increases. The Nevada Departments of Transportation and Nevada State Police, local law enforcement, fire departments, public works, emergency medical responders, federal highway, homeland security and transit administrations as well as private towing and hazardous materials responders train together, joining forces across the state in regional traffic incident management (TIM) coalitions to improve road incident response and roadway safety while reducing travel delays.

Since Nevada’s first TIM Coalition was founded in southern Nevada in 2008, coalitions statewide have trained more than 75% of all incident responders to implement consistent, safe, quick clearance of traffic incidents. More than 575 Nevada first responders have been trained in traffic incident safety thus far in 2022. The collaborative, multi-agency training help incident responders throughout the state seamlessly work together. More information is available at http://www.NVtim.com.