Emergency warning system improves road safety

Audio warnings about an approaching ambulance will soon be available in Swedish cars.

Stockholm ambulances will pilot the EVAM System, which interrupts CDs, Bluetooth and car radios to broadcast a voice warning that an emergency vehicle is nearby.

As a consequence of improvements in sound insulation, crashes involving motorists who did not hear sirens are becoming more common, and this technology is designed to improve safety on the roads.

“Often drivers have only a few seconds to react and give way to emergency vehicles,” said Mikael Erneberg, an industrial engineering student at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

“The optimal warning time is at least 10 to 15 seconds.”

The technology was developed by students at KTH and involves a radio transmission from the emergency vehicle to nearby FM tuners that are equipped with Radio Rata System (RDS) technology.

The signal is sent over the FM band along with the transmission of a text message that appears in the tuner display.

As long as the tuner is turned on, a voice message will broadcast on the system. Unlike lights and sirens, the warning system anticipates how far in advance messages need to be heard depending on the speed of local traffic. On a highway, for example, the signal will broadcast earlier than in slow city traffic.

“We want to catch motorists’ attention at an early stage and mitigate stress that impairs road safety,” said Erneberg.

Stockholm will begin testing its system in a limited number of emergency vehicles during the first quarter of 2017.

It is anticipated that the EVAM System would reach two-thirds of all vehicles on the road, and it can also warn of accidents along the route.

“It fulfils three functions — improving accessibility for first responders, improving road safety and make the working environment in transport better for vulnerable professions,” said Florian Curinga, KTH student.

Image courtesy of KTH.