National Mayday Readiness Report
23 October 2000
National Mayday Readiness Report
DETROIT, Oct. 23 Leaders of the public/private National
Mayday Readiness Initiative (NMRI) today announced sweeping recommendations
for the exploding automotive telematics industry. When an airbag deploys in a
telematics-equipped car or an automobile emergency button is pushed, a private
call center is notified, and assistance from 9-1-1 or other public agencies
may need to be dispatched to the victim. NMRI addressed the issues which
arise as telematics providers, such as OnStar, work with 9-1-1 and other
public emergency response agencies.
"The new emergency communications systems hold great life saving promise,
but they don't work by themselves. Victims need an effective private/public
response team. Today we are announcing a series of important and detailed
recommendations, the results of six months of intensive effort by over 20
national organizations," said Dr. Howard Champion, a national leader in trauma
medicine and Board member of the ComCARE Alliance, which sponsored the
initiative along with the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). "When
implemented, the NMRI recommendations will help save lives and reduce injuries
by reducing response times and improving emergency communications."
"We are pleased to have been a partner in bringing the key public and
private parties together," said Christine Johnson, Director of the Intelligent
Transportation Systems Joint Program Office of USDOT. "NMRI is an excellent
example of public/private cooperation in the public interest. The issues were
thoroughly aired and you delivered a lot of excellent answers."
"Within a few years, millions of American cars will have these telematics
systems," said Farmington Hills Police Chief William Dwyer, First Vice
President of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police and representing the
law enforcement organizations which participated in NMRI. "We need to set the
rules now." Lyle Gallagher, President of the Association of Public-safety
Communications Officials, International said: "We will establish a national
public/private consortium of these stakeholders to follow through on our
recommendations. We all owe a debt of gratitude to DOT, GM/OnStar and the
ComCARE Alliance for bringing us together to make this happen."
"The recommendations announced today range from new training standards for
both public and private emergency dispatchers, to a national emergency contact
directory, and include operational standards for telematics companies. We are
delighted to have played an active role in their development," said Norman
Forshee, President of the National Emergency Number Association. "Wireless
technology ties these parties together," said Tom Wheeler, President and CEO
of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. "We are pleased with
the NMRI process and look forward to the implementation of the
recommendations."
"As an industry leader in automotive safety research and technology, GM is
proud to be associated with the NMRI and we support its efforts to deliver
effective highway crash emergency assistance that saves lives and reduces
injuries," said Robert C. Lange, General Motors Engineering Director for
Automotive Safety. "GM will continue its dialogue and liaison with ComCARE
and the NMRI stakeholders regarding the exploration of advanced crash
notification technology that could be useful to emergency response and medical
teams."
Lange noted that since 1999, OnStar, today's most comprehensive in-vehicle
safety, security and convenience provider, has offered its customers the
option to have personal medical information available immediately to medical
emergency rooms across the country should that be required. "As we work with
ComCARE, NMRI and the emergency medical community to provide additional crash
data, we must ensure that privacy issues are addressed," he said.
Dr. Champion praised General Motors announcement that it would continue to
work with ComCARE and the emergency medical community to study the feasibility
of providing additional data in crashes via OnStar. "More sophisticated crash
data will not only tell emergency responders, automatically, that there is a
crash and where it is, thus reducing response times," he added, "but this
advanced form of automatic crash notification will also help us dispatch the
right care, immediately. This will reduce the extraordinary number of
fatalities on America's roads today."
The detailed recommendations are available on request. The NMRI process
was managed by the ComCARE Alliance and DOT, and funded by DOT and grants from
General Motors and OnStar. See http://www.NMRI.net, http://www.comcare.org, and
http://www.dot.gov.