Jonesboro, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – The Jonesboro Fire Department (JFD) is taking advantage of new technology that notifies drivers when an emergency vehicle is approaching while enroute to an incident.
The department uses the HAAS Alert system, which will only activate if the truck has its lights flashing and is responding to an emergency. It will notify drivers as a truck approaches or is working an incident on the side of the road, giving drivers more time to move over.
Drivers will receive notifications on their in-dash systems if they drive a 2024 or newer model of Volkswagen vehicles or drive 2018 and newer models of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep or Ram vehicles. In addition, drivers using navigation apps such as Apple Maps or Waze, will also receive notifications.
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No sign up is required, and the alerts are not specific just to Jonesboro. Any emergency response vehicle with a HAAS system installed will alert drivers if its lights are activated. Jonesboro Police Department (JPD) public information official Sally Smith told JRN she was not aware of plans for a system to be installed in JPD’s fleet at the moment.
JFD Chief Marty Hamrick said the alert systems have begun to be pre-installed on new trucks. The department received its first truck with the system a few years ago, and after seeing the technology’s capabilities, JFD worked to install the system on all 10 of its frontline units, with the final system being installed about a month ago.
“When it receives the alert, it doesn’t matter what you got going on [in your car]. If you’re on the phone, if you’ve got your radio turned up, air conditioning on full blast, it mutes all that stuff down to where you can hear emergency vehicles,” Hamrick said. “If [emergency vehicles] are coming from behind you or whatever – because that’s a big problem with newer vehicles is, they’re so quiet inside the passenger compartment for passenger comfort – you don’t hear us until we’re right on top of you.”
While the system is mostly used to alert drivers of approaching vehicles, Hamrick noted it can also notify drivers if a road will be shut down for an extended period of time. Staff back at a JFD station can monitor each truck’s whereabouts with the system, and if it is determined a road will be closed due to the incident crews are working, can issue an alert, even giving estimates as to how long the area will be affected.
This works in addition to the City of Jonesboro’s CodeRED alerts, which also issues weather alerts, missing persons, and other emergency alerts. It can be signed up for here.
Hamrick added that the system assists with Arkansas’ Move Over laws, which require that drivers move a lane away to their right from approaching emergency vehicles. By giving a longer notice of an approaching vehicle, drivers have more time to safely move over.
While the alerts help notify drivers, Hamrick said motorists still need to be aware of their surroundings. He added that if drivers could not safely move over, the best thing to do is to stop their vehicle, as first responders are trained to navigate around it.
“Our protocols are, if we’re driving in traffic, we’re always going to pass traffic on the left. So, that may mean we’re getting in a turning lane or even into oncoming lanes to get around that traffic,” Hamrick said. “It’s generally taught that anywhere in emergency response driving is always go to the left, and that way, everybody should know, whether it’s a police car, ambulance, fire truck, we do the same thing.”
In the future, Hamrick said there could be plans to coordinate the HAAS system with the city’s traffic signals. If an emergency vehicle is responding to an incident, the system can send an alert to any traffic signals along the route, giving a green light to first responders while stopping traffic for all other drivers. However, that plan, if implemented, is still a ways away, he said.
“Every bit we can do the help keep the public safe and help us get to emergencies quicker, we’re gonna definitely look at it and give it a try,” Hamrick said.
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