Immediate access to road crash data

July 25, 2023

Dan Quin, Chief Fire Officer for Surrey Fire and Rescue Service and the National Fire Chief Council’s (NFCC) lead for road safety and road rescue has welcomed the news that real time road crash data could soon be made available to the emergency services, helping to speed up collision response times and save lives – describing it as a ‘breakthrough.’

In the unfortunate event of a collision, the TeCall system, which is about to be piloted, will provide detailed information about the vehicles involved to the fire service, police, paramedics and highway operators, almost instantly.

Dan Quin, Chief Fire Officer for Surrey Fire and Rescue Service and the National Fire Chief Council’s (NFCC) lead for road safety and road rescue, said: “I am delighted that Surrey Fire and Rescue Service are working with partners to incorporate the call data from eCall technology into our emergency response.

“This breakthrough will revolutionise our ability to serve and protect the community. We are pleased to finally be accessing this invaluable data, which has been available for some time.”

TeCall, which was developed by VESOS Solutions, will analyse e-Call connected vehicle data, available from the majority of UK cars and vans, providing emergency services with:

– A vehicle’s exact location
– Vehicle make and model
– Vehicle fuel type, or if it is electric – for example, collisions involving electric vehicles require additional fire tenders due to increased risk
– Number of occupants
– If vulnerable people are on board

The development of the Proof of Concept has been made possible thanks to a grant from the 2022 Transport Research and Innovation Grants (TRIG) programme, and is delivered by Connected Places Catapult on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT).

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