Research Pays Off: DamageWise Program Implementation Pays Off for Indiana

This Research Pays Off article from TR News documents the Indiana Department of Transportation's business processes related to the repair of state property damaged by motor vehicle crashes. Road infrastructure elements, such as guardrails, signs, and bridges, routinely sustain damage from motor vehicle crashes. Recovering the costs of repairing damage to state property from the parties responsible requires efficient business processes and public agency collaboration. Indiana Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) implementation of the DamageWise program increased collections for repairs to damaged state property.

Indiana DOT maintains approximately 11,000 miles of state roads. About 60,000 motor vehicle crashes per year occur on state-maintained roads; in approximately 4,000 instances, these crashes cause damage to state property. Indiana DOT incurs significant financial losses to repair the damage if the responsible parties cannot be identified, if invoices do not reflect the fully loaded cost of the repair, or if collection processes are not timely and efficient. 

Research Pays Off articles are included in TR News, TRB's bimonthly magazine featuring timely articles on innovative and state-of-the-art research and practice in all modes of transportation. It also includes brief news items of interest to the transportation community, research pays off articles that profile of transportation professionals, workshop and conference announcements, new book notices, and news of TRB activities. Submissions of manuscripts for possible publication are accepted at any time.

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