The faster emergency responders arrive at the scene of a serious accident, the greater the likelihood of survival for individuals who are injured. Bleeding, swelling, and serious trauma can cause serious harm within a very short period of time. In order to expedite arrival of emergency responders, company’s such as Toyota are installing connected technology as a standard feature within their vehicles.
Connected technology is nothing new. Services such as OnStar have been around for a while. However, many of these early systems required user input to deploy emergency personnel. Toyota and other car manufacturers have recognized that incapacitated drivers can’t make these requests. For this reason, connected technology automatically contacts emergency responders when a vehicle’s airbags are deployed.
“Toyota is building a nationwide network to support this technology. It’s an ambitious project that will connect vehicles equipped with the company’s Data Communication Module (DCM) to cell phone networks. When fully operational, it could shave precious minutes off the response time of emergency responders,” observed Reno car accident attorney Matthew L. Sharp.
Response times in Nevada can range from 5 minutes in Las Vegas and Reno, to over an hour in rural areas of the state. The time connected technology systems can shave off these times is truly a matter of life and death.
“In 2015, there were 321 traffic fatalities in Nevada. It’s impossible to say how many individuals would have survived had emergency response times been faster. However, emergency responders and hospital personnel agree that the sooner a victim is treated, the greater the likelihood they will survive their injuries,” remarked Reno car accident attorney Matthew L. Sharp.
Traffic fatalities have increased in Nevada for the third straight year. Connected technology that can reduce response times will be crucial in helping to curb this trend. Ultimately, the smarter our cars become, the safer they will become.
