BOULDER, Colo.-SCC Communications Corp. reported positive results from the first test of its Automatic Crash Notification system designed to alert Emergency 911 services in the event of an automobile accident.
The test involved crashing two vehicles equipped with the ACN devices at an air force base in upstate New York. The system included sensors placed inside the automobiles and a wireless phone used to transmit both voice and data automatically.
As the crash occurred, the ACN system collected and instantaneously transmitted the crash data through the E911 connection in the wireless phone to SCC’s Emergency Communications Network in Boulder, Colo.
Once the information reached SCC’s ECN, it combined the voice of the passengers with information about the car and its occupants, the severity of the crash and the location of the accident. That information then was delivered through the existing E911 system and routed to a dispatcher at the Houston Fire Department in Houston, Texas, who was acting as the test Public Safety Answering Point for the demonstration.
SCC said the voice and collision data traveled from the crash site in New York to the dispatcher in Texas in less than one minute.
The demonstration also included a real time transmission of crash data to a model computer program that recreates the crash data on a computer screen enabling doctors to view crash details before the patient arrives. This crash data was delivered in less than four minutes.
SCC Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Stephen Meer noted the system picks up where current in-car telematics systems leave off in that ACN is directly hooked up to the 911 system instead of to a systems operator. Meer noted that nationwide coverage for the system would take a few years, but expects the system to be ready for delivery in select areas by late 2001.
