Story originally published by Sand Springs Leader

Firefighters willingly risk their lives for people every day, but dodging speeding cars in traffic shouldn’t be part of the job, Sand Springs Fire Chief Jeremy Wade believes.

So Wade is doing what he can to make the roads safer for his crews.

The Sand Springs Fire Department recently installed transponders on three of its “first-out” fire trucks that will alert many drivers — those using popular navigation apps and those driving certain makes of vehicles — to the presence of the emergency responders nearby.

The importance of the new technology has never been as obvious as in recent months.

Two Tulsa firefighters were injured Jan. 29 on U.S. 75 north of downtown Tulsa when a pickup hit their fire truck as they were assisting at the scene of a previous traffic accident, reports indicate.

The impact pushed the fire truck into the vehicle that had crashed earlier, and the firefighters, who were outside their truck working near the other vehicle, were knocked over a guardrail, authorities said at the time.

Both men were taken to a hospital for treatment, reports show.

Just three months earlier, a driver reportedly traveling too fast for the rainy conditions had plowed into the side of the Sand Springs Fire Department’s only ladder truck, severely damaging it.

In that Oct. 24 incident, two Sand Springs fire trucks and their crews were assisting the Oklahoma Highway Patrol at the scene of an afternoon wreck in the eastbound lanes of U.S. 412 just west of 129th West Avenue, authorities said. 

As crews worked to clear the scene of vehicles and debris, Wade said, a driver who was speeding and not paying attention came upon the scene but failed to give ample space to the emergency vehicles, slamming into the side of the ladder truck.

Wade said he was glad that no firefighters were injured, “but we have an expensive truck that was damaged.”

The 3-year-old fire truck, valued at roughly $1 million, required nearly $60,000 worth of repairs, and having the ladder truck unavailable for more than five months while those repairs were made put the Fire Department in a position of having to make alternate plans for responding to emergencies.

Wade is hopeful that the in-vehicle alert notifications his fire crews will be able to send to drivers via the new service, Safety Cloud by HAAS Alert, will help reduce such outcomes.

The real-time digital alerts have been proven to protect first responders, improve compliance with state “move over” laws, and reduce the likelihood of secondary collisions near roadside incidents, according to HAAS.

The company says adding the digital notification component to traditional emergency alert methods, such as traffic cones and emergency vehicle lights and sirens, can lower the risk of a collision by as much as 90%.

That’s significant, considering that more than 16,000 collisions involving fire service vehicles occur each year.

Drivers can receive the Safety Cloud alerts in a variety of ways. The easiest is through the navigation systems provided in newer-model vehicles by participating automobile manufacturers, including Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Chrysler.

But Safety Cloud alerts also are delivered through the cellphone navigation applications Apple Maps and Waze if the apps are in use.

Of the nearly 312 million smartphone users in the U.S. in November, 51.4% of them were using an iPhone equipped with Apple Maps, according to the website Statista.

That means that more than half of all Americans who have smartphones already have the capability to get the alerts.

And HAAS said it is continuing to bring new vehicles and navigation apps onto its platform.

In addition, Wade said, some fire truck manufacturers are beginning to install the technology in their vehicles in the factory.

“The technology has just kind of gotten here,” he said, noting that backup cameras are required by law in even base model new cars now. “It’s no longer just luxury cars that have GPS capability.”

The HAAS digital alert system is activated when an emergency vehicle has its lights on and the vehicle is put in park.

“It was sold to us as obviously for public safety entities,” Wade said, “but it’s starting to catch on with wrecker services.”

The Sand Springs Fire Department is not the only agency in the area with the technology, Wade said.

The Tulsa and Berryhill fire departments also use the alert system, and the Sapulpa Fire Department was considering signing on the last he knew, he said. 

Wade said Sand Springs also opted into a “truck-to-truck” transponder capability, which allows vehicles approaching an intersection to send out a signal to other emergency vehicles to take extra precautions at the intersection.

“I hate to admit it, but you tell a firefighter that something’s on fire, and they get an adrenalin rush,” he said. “There’s accidents all the time with two fire trucks or fire trucks and ambulances colliding at intersections.”

Wade said his department pays roughly $1,700 a year for three transponder units and the service through the subscription-based system, a cost he said is worth it.

“I found the money in my budget for it, meaning I pulled it from something else,” he said.

The department is also investing in low-tech, less-costly measures to try to mitigate hazards on the road.

Bright-orange, diamond-shaped signs declaring “EMERGENCY SCENE AHEAD” have been added to the row of orange traffic cones placed behind fire trucks leading up to incident scenes to alert motorists of the need to slow down and give emergency crews a wider berth.

“We’ve made multiple changes, and the signs are a big one,” Wade said.

But the technology is where he thinks the hope for the greatest impact might lie. Right now, though, the hurdle is getting motorists to actually use the tools.

“Honestly, it’s going to come over time where it’s not optional,” he said, adding that he also sees it as a generational thing. “This younger generation is more reliant on navigation devices. They might just be directionally challenged, but the end result is they have it on. 

Wade is hoping that getting the word out about the possibilities will help change some behavior.

“Maybe the public will just say, ‘You know what, I think I’m going to turn my navigation on, and I never thought about that before,’” he said.