Story originally posted by Julia Rosier at News Channel 20

SPRINGFIELD, ILL — The Springfield Fire Department is now using new technology to alert drivers when they are responding to emergencies.

The new system is called the HAAS Alert. It connects the emergency lights of a firetruck and a driver's navigation system.

"The alerting system will give people an update if there are any accidents up ahead or if our emergency vehicles are inbound from a direction coming from behind or wherever to let them know to get over," Nick Zummo, Division Chief at SFD, said.

The Springfield Fire Department has added the HAAS Alert's Safety Cloud Digital Alerting to its system. Drivers will now receive digital alerts when an emergency vehicle is nearby via in-dash systems.

The goal is to reduce collision risks and facilitate the state's move-over laws.

"It goes right along with Scott's Law which notifies people to get over and make way for emergency vehicles in the scenes and hopefully will protect not only us but police and everyone tow truck drivers that are on scene and emergency vehicle accidents," Zummo said.

The alerts are activated when SFD's emergency lights are in use. If you're driving and using a navigation system, you'll get the alert that there is an emergency vehicle nearby and to pull over.

The fire department said it will work on several navigation devices, including:

• Jeep
• Dodge
• Ram
• Chrysler vehicles
• Waze
• Apple Maps

"While you're driving, we'll either get this in your in-dash navigation or a lot of the more popular apps that people use Waze, Apple, some of those, they will give you notifications like you know that either you're coming to an accident scene or we happen to be coming up behind you or approaching your vehicle," Zummo said.

The Springfield Fire Department said most of their new vehicles come with this feature. Zummo said seven engines and two trucks have it ready to go now.

"This is becoming kind of a mainstay and in a lot of new apparatus that are being built around all the different manufacturers and when we were lucky enough to get the purchase of some new vehicles in the last couple of years," Zummo said.

The Springfield Fire Department thinks this new technology will significantly help reduce accidents on the roads while drivers are moving over for emergency vehicles.

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.

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