Controlling the Scene Christopher Watkins

Advancing first responder safety is at the forefront of all suppliers within the fire apparatus and emergency equipment industry. It’s a critical mission in both warning and illumination. Every new feature, widget, and innovation that comes out is designed to further enhance the safety of both the motoring public and first responders.

As emergency scenes are made safer with the latest technology and improved product features, suppliers are beginning to take a bigger picture approach to scene safety. It no longer includes just what’s happening on scene; we are now looking at the moments involved in getting first responders to the scene. We’re asking questions like, “How do first responders interact with each other when en route to an emergency?” and “How do first responders interact with the apparatus and other drivers on the road when responding to a call?” We’re asking questions that go beyond traditional visual and audible alerting to uncover new ways to make emergency responses even safer for first responders and everyone else on the road too.

On the technology side, most of us are familiar with “the cloud.” Historically, its primary use for the emergency market was to provide access to information and help fleet managers understand and better manage their apparatus. Telematics, a fancy word used to describe fleet management software that offers a comprehensive view of vehicles and aids in operational efficiency, has been in use since the 1960s. Its adoption into our industry began in the early 2000s and is a commonly found feature in apparatus today and will soon reach the tipping point of becoming a standard part of builds.

As this happens and the connectivity of our market increases, suppliers are using this readily available technology to improve safety in new and innovative ways. Currently, the latest advancements in cloud-connected safety mean it’s now possible for fleets around the country to digitally alert motorists to their presence, incorporate responder-to-responder alerting, as well as control and direct traffic signal priority at intersections, otherwise known as emergency vehicle preemption (EVP).

While every new safety feature is important, that last one on the list, EVP, is a huge deal because we all know that approaching an intersection is one of the most precarious moments first responders face when responding to a call. They are navigating not only the motoring public but other apparatus rushing to the scene as well. Emergency vehicles approaching the same intersection from multiple directions creates an extremely challenging situation. With the latest technology enabled, the driver of each responding vehicle receives a notification that another emergency vehicle is approaching the intersection at the same time, alerting first responders to take extra precautions when clearing the intersection.

Today, through products like Whelen Engineering’s Vehicle Safety Gateway (VSG) and the company’s partnership with Global Traffic Technologies (GTT), intersections can now interact with apparatus by using enhanced precision and GPS data through the Whelen Cloud Platform®, which directly links the apparatus to an intersection. The earlier issue of range limitation no longer applies, as the cloud can communicate directly to the signal from any distance. This new, centralized technology is not dependent on a line of sight to the intersection either, so it’s equally effective around corners.

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