Ottawa Fire Department installs devices to alert vehicles of its presence at emergencies

The Ottawa Fire Department announced that it will be integrating a new digital system to alert drivers and improve road safety for everyone during its emergency calls.

HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud digital alerting system, a collision prevention device that relays real-time digital alerts to drivers through their electronics and vehicles when emergency services are active nearby, is being integrated into all of the OFD’s fire apparatuses.

“The main goal of this is to make it safer for us, but it’s really promoting safety for everyone,” Ottawa Fire Chief Brian Bressner said. “It’s especially necessary for accident scenes on the interstate. If we can alert those drivers way ahead of time and have them slow down earlier, hopefully we can avoid some of the secondary collisions. It works well for that in town, too.

“It makes people aware of what’s going on, slow them down and avoid unnecessary accidents.”

Although move-over laws require drivers to slow down and change lanes when emergency vehicles approach, there still are slow-reacting and noncompliant drivers that can create hazards.

This system of immediate in-vehicle notifications, however, provides up to 30 seconds of preemptive warning that first responders are on their way or at the scene of an incident, enhancing their light bars and sirens in making sure drivers are aware.

By providing motorists more time to react, the system has been proven to reduce the risk of collision between emergency vehicles and civilian vehicles by as much as 90%, making both drivers and responders safer.

When the city received its new tower truck in 2023, the system already was installed on it. Through that use, the OFD found it worked so well, especially in the downtown area, that it decided to install the alerts on all of its emergency medical services vehicles.

The total cost is about $2,800 per year for all of the city’s EMS vehicles.

The alerts are accessible through the Waze navigation app and Apple Maps, which are free-to-use and compatible with mobile phones and device and/or integrated to the dashboards on many newer vehicles. They are available on infotainment screens on many vehicles, including the 2018 and newer models of Jeep, Ram, Chrysler and Dodge through the Emergency Vehicle Alert System feature.

The system is currently being adapted by HAAS to be comparable with more platforms and more makes and models of vehicles.

For more information about HAAS Alert, visit www.haasalert.com.