Incident Response Unit

In an effort to reduce crashes and congestion, ADOT has a dedicated patrol team that focuses primarily on traffic incident management

The Incident Response Unit, sponsored by GEICO, is helping boost safety by getting traffic moving sooner after crashes. The patrol provides vital services, which range from setting up traffic control to moving vehicles involved in minor crashes to removing debris – even changing a flat tire here and there.

The ADOT Incident Response Unit (IRU) began patrolling the Phoenix metro area on Oct. 1, 2019. This 15-member team is part of ADOT’s Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) and provides traffic control and other assistance at crash scenes. When not responding to traffic incidents, the team will perform minor highway maintenance tasks. The ADOT Incident Response Unit sponsored by GEICO is on patrol Monday – Friday from 4 a.m. to midnight and on weekends from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The No. 1 goal for IRU, sponsored by GEICO, is to reduce crashes. Once IRU operators arrive,  they can improve traffic flow after crashes and reduce the possibility of secondary collisions, which often are more serious than the initial crash, while helping motorists get where they need to be. 

IRU operators respond to about 12,000 incidents annually. Those incidents range from helping motorists change a flat tire to clearing travel lanes of unsecured, lost loads to assisting with traffic control when a crash closes an interstate. Work performed by IRU, sponsored by GEICO, frees Arizona Department of Public Safety Troopers to focus their efforts on crash investigations and respond to other situations on Phoenix-area freeways.

Sponsorship of IRU aligns with GEICO’s long standing commitment to communities across the country. More information can be found at SafetyPatrolinfo.com.

Assisted motorists are encouraged to share about the help they received by posting to social media. Motorists will be able to tag the patrols using #GEICOSafetyPatrol.

The ADOT Incident Response Unit is operated solely by ADOT and not authorized to contact GEICO on behalf of the motorists or assist in insurance claims.