21 August 2002: Ford Motor Company in the US is assisting emergency medical personnel explore ways to make a speedier and more informed response at crash scenes.

The programme involves Ford's enhanced Automatic Crash Notification (ACN) technology being installed into 500 police cars in the Houston area in June for a two-year pilot, in partnership with the local 911 Emergency Network.

The pilot scheme is using police cars because law enforcement vehicles are involved in a higher percentage of crashes than other vehicles.

When a crash occurs, the system is activated by the extreme changes in g-forces on the vehicle in three directions. Sensors measure deceleration and direction – such as frontal, rear or side – which are important factors in determining injuries. The system also determines whether air bags were deployed, which seats throughout the vehicle are occupied, and if the occupants are wearing their safety belts. Belt usage is another key factor in determining the risk of injury. Vehicle orientation and location are determined with the help of sensors and global positioning satellites.

When a call comes in from one of the equipped vehicles, this information is routed to a call center, which establishes a voice link with the occupants in the car and connects the vehicle to the appropriate 911 center, known as the public safety answering point (PSAP). The operator at the PSAP dispatches help to callers in need of emergency assistance.

The calls made in this pilot will be automatically routed from the call center to the 911 Emergency Network, with more critical data than any other system available today.

When a landline call comes into the PSAP, location information is automatically provided to the operator, who can dispatch EMS personnel immediately to the scene.

Even though the occupant may not be able to alert rescuers to his or her position, the automatically transmitted location data could help speed rescue efforts that might otherwise stretch into hours or even days. Furthermore, knowing the number of occupants and the number of seatbelts in use could help to prepare hospital trauma workers to more quickly diagnose and treat the types of injuries they’re likely to see, based on the specific crash.

In the United States, approximately 40,000 lives are lost in traffic accidents each year and another 5 million people are injured. Most of the fatalities occur soon after the crash. For example, 30 percent of deaths occur within minutes of the crash. Fifty percent occur before the patient arrives at a hospital. Fully 70 percent of deaths occur within two hours of a crash.