A new app being developed locally, could alert drivers of police chases or other emergency activity along nearby roads, possibly keeping drivers and first responders out of harms way.
Mike Walsh, the founder of MakeWay Safety Technologies, tells KMOX that they are testing a system with 4 departments in the region that would send out a signal from police, fire or other emergency vehicles as soon as their emergency lights are activated.
"There's not another button the police officer has to remember to push, we want this involuntary on both ends, both from the transmission side as well as the reception side." says Walsh. As soon as that system is activated, "our device begins to hunt for connected phones, smart phones or connected vehicles."
"If you're in the path of that emergency vehicle, you're gonna get a push-notification that tells you that there's an emergency vehicle approaching. Our technology can tell you whether that car is approaching from the rear, or if you're at an intersection, whether its approaching from the left, [or] approaching from the right. It can tell whether the emergency vehicle is parked on the side of the, roadway, so you get a different notification for that," explains Walsh.
Walsh explained that his niece is a St Louis Police officer who's vehicle was t-boned at an intersection by a driver who didn't hear or see her lights or siren. He expects the current trial to be complete by the end of the month, so they can gather data and work for an additional larger scale test of the techology in several departments in the region
