Recovery companies secure IM incidents

Friday 15 August 2014
Rijkswaterstaat intends to deploy recovery companies more often for the securing of IM incidents. The processing of incidents on motorways are governed by strict safety regulations. One of those regulations specifies that the location of the incident must be screened from approaching traffic by means of a so-called security vehicle. This is done in order to create a safe zone within which recovery companies, road inspectors and emergency services workers can do their work without interruptions.

The security task is generally carried out by a road inspector from Rijkswaterstaat or a police vehicle. On occasion, however, neither police nor road inspector can reach the scene on time. The recovery companies will then be asked to take over this task. In such cases, the National Central Reporting Point (LCM) of Stichting Incident Management Nederland will ask the recovery company to dispatch two vehicles: one for the recovery work and one to secure the scene.

Recovery companies are permitted to deploy a standard recovery vehicle for such tasks, but they may also opt to deploy another vehicle, on condition it complies with the requirements for security vehicles laid down in the Quality Requirements for Recovery Companies 2013 - 2016.