A primary-of-its-kind piece of know-how in Allegheny County helps firefighters in Penn Hills extra safely reply to emergencies.

HAAS Alert transponders had been mounted in 5 Penn Hills Volunteer Fire Department No. 7 vehicles simply this week.

Any time these vehicles’ flashing lights are on, the transponder sends alerts to close by drivers via their telephone’s GPS apps — and even on to some automobiles’ digital screens.

“There’s a notification going off and they look at it, ‘Oh, there’s an accident a mile ahead, maybe I ought to slow down,’” defined Chief Bill Jeffcoat.

“[Drivers are] going to get that notification either in their device or in their vehicle much earlier than they would have otherwise seen that emergency vehicle,” added Brock Aun, HAAS Alert’s VP of communications.

Aun mentioned the alerts are designed to be simply one other approach firefighters let drivers know they’re at a scene, or headed to at least one, along with the standard lights and sirens.

“Drivers usually have only about two or three seconds between when they see lights on the road and when they have to move over. Safety Cloud alerts reach drivers about 30 seconds before they reach that hazard,” Aun defined.

According to Jeffcoat, his division is the primary in Allegheny County to put in the HAAS tech.

It was motivated to take action after a driver crashed right into a tractor-trailer on the Parkway as a result of they didn’t see a hearth truck stopped on the scene of a earlier crash.

“It was just one of those things where they had to slam on their brake and they immediately jerked the steering wheel to the left and they hit the tractor-trailer,” Jeffcoat mentioned.

Several departments within the space, in response to Jeffcoat, have already reached out to Penn Hills Fire desirous to be taught extra about this new know-how, enthusiastic about putting in it in their very own vehicles.

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