March 27, 2024
Story originally posted by Mye Owens at WKRN
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — In Franklin, you’ll find more than lights and sirens any time an emergency crew gets close.
Now, you may notice a new alert pop up in your GPS. It’s new technology meant to make the roads safer for drivers and first responders.
“When they are responding, that’s when the notification goes out to the motorist, about a 30-second heads up to whenever we would be seen,” explained Daniel Donegan, a fire analyst with the Franklin Fire Department.
It’s called Safety Cloud® and it warns drivers when an emergency vehicle is approaching. It will notify a driver within a 30-second radius that they need to slow down or move over for a nearby emergency vehicle.
“We see it every day with vehicles across the country and across the state where they are striking the back of these vehicles, so hopefully this earlier warning will help give other motorists the time to move over,” explained Donegan.
State law requires drivers to slow down or move over for emergency and utility service vehicles, but that doesn’t always happen. The fire department saw it first hand in 2017 when one of its trucks was struck while working a crash on I-65.
Fast forward to 2023, and the Franklin Fire Department responded to more than 11,000 calls; nearly 600 of them were for motor vehicle crashes.
About HAAS Alert
HAAS Alert makes roads and communities safer by delivering digital alerts from emergency response and other municipal fleets to nearby drivers. The company streams real-time alerts and other vital safety information to motorists and connected cars via in-vehicle and navigation systems when emergency vehicles are approaching and on-scene. For emergency response and roadway fleets interested in joining the Safety Cloud, click below to get equipped.
