Queensland’s Gold Coast has become the test bed for a new emergency services technology that enables traffic lights to detect oncoming ambulances, fire trucks and police cars, and prioritize their passage through intersections on a green light rather than being forced to legally break road rules. The new system oper
Queensland's Gold Coast has become the test bed for a new emergency services technology that enables traffic lights to detect oncoming ambulances, fire trucks and police cars, and prioritize their passage through intersections on a green light rather than being forced to legally break road rules.
The new system operates by recognizing the flashing lights and sirens of an emergency vehicle attempting to pass through a intersections via an automated system that triggers the lights to change in favor of a priority vehicle, maintaining its passage with a more natural flow of traffic rather than driving against oncoming vehicles.
Dubbed Emergency Vehicle Priority (EVP), the project is being tested at 52 intersections in the Southport area in conjunction with 10 Queensland Ambulance Service vehicles.
Although accidents involving emergency vehicles are relatively uncommon compared to regular traffic, their impact is highly significant because another response team must then be dispatched to either the scene of where the first vehicle was headed, or to the scene of the accident if an ambulance is ferrying an injured or ill person to hospital.
The cost of investigating collisions is also significant because of the level of resources involved in determining the cause of the accident as well as higher repair and replacement costs.
Although a similar technology has already been applied in Sydney and Melbourne, it's also being trialed by the Queensland government to see whether it works in minimizing the disruption to traffic and returning it to normal conditions as quickly as possible after the emergency vehicle has passed.