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NTTA Dedicated to Safety From the moment you steer your vehicle onto one of our roadways, your safety becomes paramount to the NTTA. Evidence of our dedication to safety is displayed on a bank of monitors watched around the clock inside the secure NTTA Command Center, which operates under the supervision of the System and Incident Management Department.
The SIM Department oversees most aspects of safety and security on NTTA roadways, from measuring icing on bridges to monitoring suspicious activity.
“We deal with emergencies all the time,” said Marty Legé, director of the SIM Department. “The goal is to manage those emergencies effectively.”
About 30 accidents occur on NTTA roadways each week, and the SIM Department’s goal is to ensure the safety of motorists involved as well as those approaching the accident by clearing roads quickly while providing protection of the scene.
When a car careens into a barrier, dispatchers are ready to send responders. When a car stops on a tollway, an alert goes out. Command Center dispatchers then use cameras stationed along each of our roadways to assess the reason the vehicle stopped. If the vehicle is disabled, NTTA’s Roadway Customer Service (RCS) is dispatched. If criminal activity is suspected, police are called.
In recent months, dispatchers have spotted a college student who ran out of gas, a father who got a flat tire while driving his son home from a football game, a broken down charter bus and a commuter who underestimated his fuel level.
In each case, a member of the NTTA’s Roadway Customer Service team arrived before the stranded motorists called for help. The average response time for the RCS team is 10 minutes and 14 seconds. On average, it takes workers less than 10 minutes to clear stranded vehicles or hazards from roads.
“I don’t know where they came from, but this is wonderful,” a single mother wrote in an e-mail to the NTTA after getting roadside assistance. “I’ll pay extra just to know that they are out there keeping me safe.”
The NTTA doesn’t charge any of the nearly 300 motorists assisted each week through the Roadway Customer Service program.
The SIM Department manages a contract with the Texas Department of Public Safety to provide police patrols of its roadways, and the Roadway Customer Service team frees DPS troopers from some duties, including clearing roadways of hazardous debris.
“The use of RCS allows Troopers to focus on enforcement and other safety matters more effectively” Ms. Legé said.
DPS troopers still respond to accidents and provide speed enforcement on the NTTA system.
Internally, the SIM Department oversees building security, insurance coordination and safety training to ensure that employees are operating safely to bring the best value to NTTA customers.
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