It’s a new system for a northern New Mexico fire department, alerting drivers when an emergency vehicle is nearby. The department hopes this will reduce collisions and prevent tragedies.
New Mexico state law requires drivers to change lanes for emergency vehicles on the side of the road. However, the Farmington Fire Department said lights and sirens don’t always work to get drivers to slow down and move over. That’s why the department implemented new technology this week through Chicago-based HAAS Alert. The system sends out digital alerts when emergency vehicles are approaching or when they are on scene.
“It lets them know they are approaching an emergency scene and just another way to get drivers to hopefully pay attention, slow down, and provide another level of safety for those that are working on the roads,” said Farmington Fire Department Chief Robert Sterrett.
Chief Sterrett said the technology is on all of the vehicles in their fleet, and the service costs the city $6,000 a year. “At the end of the day, drivers are still going to do what drivers do, but at least it gives us a way to send an alert to a number of drivers letting them know that there is an emergency scene,” said Chief Sterrett.
Once an emergency vehicle’s lights are activated, the system notifies drivers through their cell phone navigation apps, alerting them before they might even see the emergency lights. Drivers do need to opt into the system to receive the alerts. “It projects our travel path and then that way it allows us to alert drivers that are in that travel path that we’re on our way, either coming towards them from behind, or they’re coming to us,” said Sterrett.
The department hopes the system will make roads safer. “If we save one life or one injury, it’s worth its time and money,” said Sterrett.