Insights

Why incident detection time matters

Published on October 21, 2026 by the Omnivias team at Omnicog Tecnologia.

Detection time is the interval between the moment an incident happens and the moment the Traffic Operations Center notices it. It is the least measured phase of incident management and the one that builds up the most secondary-incident risk. Automatic camera-based detection cuts that interval to seconds, and the rest of the response starts sooner.

The phases of an incident

Detection: from the event until operations know it exists.
Verification: confirming what it is, where it is and how severe it is.
Response: dispatching crews, signage and informing drivers.
Clearance: removing the vehicle or obstacle and reopening the lane.
Recovery: traffic returns to normal and the queue dissolves.

The later phases depend on the first. Late detection pushes back verification, dispatch and clearance, and the road section stays exposed for longer.

Why nobody measures detection

The incident record starts when someone notices it: a phone call, a patrol vehicle passing by, an operator looking at the right monitor. The time before that does not show up in any report. With hundreds of cameras and few operators, the chance of the event being seen right away is small.

What changes with DAI

With Automatic Incident Detection (DAI), every camera is analyzed continuously. Detection happens in seconds, and the alert reaches the operator with the image, camera, position, time and priority. Verification also gets shorter, because the image is already attached.

Fast, but without needless alarms

The time until the alert follows the rule agreed with operations. A vehicle is only treated as stopped after the interval the project sets, to separate a real stop from a momentary maneuver. This balance is tuned per camera, using the real history of triggers.

How to measure it on your road section

With the event time recorded by DAI, operations can start measuring the detection phase and compare before and after. The pilot is the moment to define that metric.

See also: DAI, the CFTV-IVA specification from ARTESP, the São Paulo state transport regulator, and false alarms.

Frequently asked questions

How quickly does DAI alert on a stopped vehicle?

Detection happens in seconds. The stopped-vehicle alert goes out after the confirmation time defined by operations, which separates a real stop from a momentary maneuver.

What is a secondary incident?

It is a new incident caused by the first one, such as a collision in the queue that formed behind a stopped vehicle. The sooner the first event is detected and signaled, the lower the risk.

How do you measure detection time?

By comparing the event time recorded by DAI with the time at which the incident used to be opened, by phone call or patrol. The pilot is the moment to define that metric.

Start with a pilot on your own cameras

First we assess the cameras the highway already has; then a proof of concept using footage from the road section itself shows the measured result. Depending on the size of the project, the assessment and the proof of concept can be free of charge, and the proof of concept starts running within 10 days of signing the agreement.

Assessment
Resolution, position, coverage, lighting and network of the existing cameras, against what the operation wants to measure and detect.
Proof of concept
SAT and DAI running on footage from the road section itself, measured against the agreed success criteria.
Production
On-premises, cloud or hybrid architecture, control center integration, rules, alerts and reports.
Continuous calibration
Rules and models tuned camera by camera using the real alert history.

How the pilot works Test it with my highway’s cameras