Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2007 - (Page 26)

Demonstrations at various transportation conferences show the value of VII. vehicles and police are on their way to respond to an incident. We all have seen and heard the countless reports about emergency vehicles facing the challenges of traveling to and arriving at incidents. While personnel, equipment and training continue to improve, preparedness, communication and information are critical to overall improvements to public safety. A VII network provides a “broadcast” that can alert approaching vehicles, vehicle-to-vehicle, that a publicsafety vehicle (fire, law enforcement, EMS, motorist assistant, etc.) is ahead on the side of the road. This simple broadcast will prevent rear-end ac- cidents and contribute to safety near accidents and other incidents. Inherent in a new communications system, as we describe, is a structure enabling information sharing between public and private industry – for example, this VII initiative promotes collaboration with local departments of transportation, traveler information providers and a region’s traffic management centers, including the emergency-responder community – all sharing information to ultimately better serve the driving public. The importance of transportation information to public safety is the ability to integrate real-time congestion information as a part of the emergency response that could alter the “normal” response route to one that is timelier based on real-time information. It may also allow trafficmanagement video sharing/streaming directly to public-safety responders, which could allow them to view real video images before arriving on the scene. Driving the debate to Decision 2008 ITS America has been actively introducing VII to transportationindustry professionals and elected government officials in an attempt to engage in a larger VII discussion. At this stage in the development of VII, it is important to consider the input voiced by stakeholders and the general public before automakers and the federal government proceed in the deployment of a nationwide VII transportation network. The milestone decision of whether to be- 10051 Barton Circle Frisco, TX 75035 888-941-3473 mike.rogers@acs-inc.com 26 TEXAS FIRE CHIEF Fall/Winter 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2007

Contents Executive Director’s Report Fire Chief of the Year What is an Emergency Service District (ESD)? Tax-Exempt Financing 101 The Benefits of Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) Southwest Fire Rescue 2008 Preview Membership Application ‘Courage to be Safe’ Program Aims to Save Lives Red Truck, Green Building Index to Advertisers

Texas Fire Chief - Fall/Winter 2007

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