App to help heed the siren

March 18, 2014 01:06 pm | Updated May 19, 2016 09:32 am IST - CHENNAI

15-year-old Viney Kumar from Australia has developed an app that will alert vehicles in front of ambulances earlier. Photo: Deepa H. Ramakrishnan

15-year-old Viney Kumar from Australia has developed an app that will alert vehicles in front of ambulances earlier. Photo: Deepa H. Ramakrishnan

He is a 15-year-old who was affected by the wailing siren of an ambulance stuck in traffic.

Viney Kumar, a student of class X of the Knox Grammar School in Sydney, has developed an app, PART (Police and Ambulances Regulating Traffic), that will alert vehicles travelling in front of ambulances and allow emergency vehicles to function better.

“When I was in India, I saw an ambulance stuck in traffic. I found the sirens are not audible beyond maybe 100 metres and hence drivers of other vehicles have only seven seconds to move away. If there is a system to warn other drivers when an emergency vehicle is, say, 500 metres away, it will provide them time to move. The police can also clear traffic,” Viney told The Hindu on the sidelines of the Australian Road Safety Showcase 2014 organised by the Australian Trade Commission.

Viney said he was in discussion with Emergency Management and Research Institute to install the system in their ambulances. The app is yet to be made available for smartphones as it still needs modifications.

Speaking at the event, Australian Consul General Sean Kelly said the road-safety showcase was organised to share experiences and identify road safety issues and provide possible solutions.

Australian trade commissioner Michael Carter, International Road Federation chairman K.K. Kapila and Neurological Society of India’s former president K. Ganapathy also spoke on the occasion.

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