New technology helps when road trouble strikes

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JANET HAMOUS
Most drivers have at least one personal story of being stranded by the side of the road after-take your pick-running out of gas, an accident, mechanical failure, or being caught in unfavorable weather.

The wait for help often is long in rural areas where there are no passersby to report the emergency. Who hasn’t sat alone in their car wondering if and when and by whom they’ll be rescued?

The good news is that communication technology is rapidly altering the face of auto travel and emergency response, and long waits for help may soon be a thing of the past.

Cellular technology

Michele Abbott-Becker, Marion County communications and emergency management director, said the growing use of cell phones has already had a major impact on emergency reporting in the county.

“Right now, 70 percent of Marion County’s 911 calls come from cellular phones,” she said. “We started tracking that about a year and half ago when we knew eventually we were going to have to be able to locate those calls. Our volume has steadily increased.”

Cell phones enable accident victims or motorists witnessing accidents to call for assistance immediately, reducing emergency response times. In some emergency situations, getting medical help to the scene quickly may mean the difference between life and death.

“We have a huge amount of state and federal highway that goes through Marion County, and when you get one accident, you may get 10 to 12 calls-all cellular-reporting that call,” Abbott-Becker said.

Currently, dispatchers must rely on the caller’s report of the location of the emergency, and that is sometimes problematic, she said.

“We have a lot of people calling in who are traveling through the state,” she said. “They think they’re on (U.S. Highway) 56, but they may have turned at Florence, or they were on (U.S. Highway) 77 and they turned and it’s (U.S. Highway) 50 now. They can tell you they just went by Florence, but they don’t know if it’s 50, 77 or where they’re at exactly.”

In addition, the quality of the communication is sometimes poor.

“We have had some pretty severe accidents that, due to the cell phone transmission, we would get the initial call and there would be so much static that we couldn’t hear the voice,” she said. “There was one on Indigo a year and half ago where it took the third call before we could determine the location of the caller.”

Abbott-Becker said upgrades to the dispatch center planned for 2005 would enable them to better pinpoint the location of wireless callers.

“We’ll be able to receive the phone number as well as the longitude and latitude of the caller,” she said. “It will include a mapping program which we’re tying in with the county appraiser’s mapping system. It will pull up a map when the call comes in and pinpoint it specifically.”

Abbott-Becker said they are applying for approval to use Homeland Security Funds for the dispatch upgrade project, and she is hopeful the new technology will be in place the first quarter of 2005.

“When we get the project approval, we have to file a letter of intent with every provider of cellular service in Marion County giving them at least six months to upgrade their technology to be able to transmit that information to us,” she said.

Although it will greatly improve their ability to locate callers, the technology will not work with all cell phones, she cautioned.

“If you don’t have the wireless telephone that has the ability to transmit that signal, we still won’t be able to track you,” she said. “So if you have an older phone, we’ll be able to get your phone number, but we won’t get your location.

“We’ll know what tower they called in from and we can pinpoint the call to a certain jurisdiction but not within feet as we would by the signal.”

Built-In Communications Systems

On-board communication systems are available in many vehicles for those who want a higher level of safety and security.

These systems, such as the OnStar system offered by General Motors, combine Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology with wireless communications to pinpoint a vehicle’s exact location.

If your car is equipped with the OnStar system, it will call for help if the air bags deploy, said Richard Tolbert, sales consultant with Irv Schroeder County Motors in Hillsboro.

“It automatically sends a signal to the OnStar operators and advises them of that,” he said. “There’s a little microphone that is part of the system, and the operator will come on and ask if the driver or anybody in the car needs assistance.

“If they respond, the operator will call the appropriate emergency services. If there is no response from anybody in that vehicle, they automatically send emergency equipment. They know where that car’s at within a few feet.”

The system also has an emergency-services button that a driver can press for help at any time.

“If someone was having trouble breathing or having other problems, they could just push the emergency service button and the operator would advise them where the nearest hospital was or tell them to stay where they’re at and they’d call the local 911 and get emergency equipment to them,” Tolbert said.

When a motorist presses the emergency button, an operator will respond within a few seconds, he said.

Tolbert said the basic OnStar service also includes roadside assistance.

“So, if there’s a flat tire or empty gas tank, you can just call the OnStar operator and tell them what you’re problem is and they’ll contact a nearby provider and get whatever help you need to you,” he said.

And if a problem light goes on, or your car is making a funny sound, OnStar’s remote diagnostics feature can help you decide whether you need to make a beeline for the repair shop or if it’s safe to continue driving.

“If you’re going down the road and your ‘check engine’ light comes on, you can contact the OnStar operator,” Tolbert said. “They can actually do diagnostics on the systems of the vehicle via satellite and tell the folks whether they need to do something about it right then.”

The system can also help you out of other potentially unsafe or difficult situations, Tolbert said.

For example, it offers a remote door-unlocking feature for times when motorists lock their keys in the car

“They just call the OnStar operator and say they’ve locked their key in and their dog’s in there and it’s hot,” Tolbert said. “You have to have a security code that you given them so they won’t inadvertently unlock the car for a thief. Then they’ll unlock your car for you.”

The OnStar system also offers a remote horn and lights feature that saves folks from walking around dark parking lots looking for their cars.

“If you’re having trouble finding your car at Arrowhead Stadium or somewhere, you can call the OnStar operator and say, ‘Would you honk my horn for me so I can find my car?'” he said.

Although OnStar is a GM product, it is available on cars built by a variety of manufacturers. When you buy or lease a new car equipped with the OnStar system, you get a one-year free subscription to the OnStar plan, Tolbert said.

After that, it costs about $200 per year to continue the service.

Tolbert said the system’s popularity is steadily increasing.

“As more people experience it, they are seeing the value in it,” he said. “It used to be more of a status thing, and the type of customer that wanted it just wanted everything on there and that was just part of it.

But now a lot of customers come in who are buying more baseline vehicles and are saying they want OnStar.”

Tolbert said the system is most popular with couples.

“Maybe they have teenage children that are driving and they want that convenience,” he said. “If their 17-year-old daughter is driving somewhere, they want her to have that emergency assistance ability if she gets into an accident.”

AACN technology

The next generation technology being introduced in a small number of vehicles is called advanced automatic crash notification. When a vehicle is equipped with it, OnStar will automatically call for help if the vehicle is involved in a moderate to severe crash, regardless of whether an air bag is deployed.

Sensors located in the car provide crash severity information to the call center to assist 911 dispatchers in determining what resources and equipment need be sent to the scene.

Eventually, AACN data may be transmitted electronically to the 911 centers to speed response time even further, and the data may include such things as number of occupants in the vehicle, safety belt usage and other information that helps emergency responders anticipate the type and severity of injuries.

It is this type of information that has privacy advocates worried. They are concerned about not only the potential for surveillance through systems such as OnStar, but that the information may fall into the hands of third parties such as the police, government or people interested in consumers’ habits and may be used in litigation.

Tolbert said that for the customers he has worked with, the safety benefits have outweighed the privacy concerns.

“I’ve never had anybody concerned about that,” he said. “They’re more interested in the ability to have others find them or find their vehicle if it’s stolen. That’s more of a priority to people than the potential of somebody up there in the sky being able to keep track of them when they’re in their vehicle.”

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