DGPS EMERGENCY LOCATION SYSTEM FOR VEHICLES

Even today much time is lost in bringing effective help when an accide nt with a truck carrying dangerous goods occurs. The location of the a ccident is often not well described by the people reporting it. Often it is difficult to determine what sort of freight a lorry is carrying, for example when the vehicle is burning, and sometimes the fire briga de does not bring the appropriate extinguishing equipment for the firs t help approach, Now an emergency location system is under development which will remove all these disadvantages. For immediate help on car accidents, an automatic alert message is transferred from the crashed vehicle via the emergency call centre to the fire brigade, the police station or the headquarters of an ambulance. The alert is initiated by a crash sensor within the car or the truck. The data channel between vehicle and base can be a radio link or, for longer distances, a mobil e telephone connection using CNET Or GSM. As help is faster and more e ffective with this system, environmental damage caused by dangerous.go ods can be reduced. In Stuttgart the mobile part of the DGPS-based eme rgency location system has been integrated in several vehicles. The fu ll system is being tested within a field trial of a pilot project call ed STORM (Stuttgart Transport Operation by Regional Management), which is part of a programme of the European Community. The results of thes e tests are summarized in this paper. The integration of the system in to fleet management applications is also considered.