To help ambulances transport patients to hospitals within the ‘golden hour’, the Greater Chennai Traffic Police have launched the ‘mSiren’ Smart Ambulance Traffic Facilitation System.
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The project was inaugurated by Kapil Kumar C. Saratkar, Additional commissioner of Police (Traffic), at the Ega Theatre traffic junction on Poonamallee High Road, Chetpet on Wednesday. Mr. Sarathkar said the project was intended to create green corridors to help ambulances reach hospitals within the golden hour (the time period during which an injured or sick person must be given medical treatment to reduce the chances of death).
As part of the project, the police have collaborated with major hospitals in the city wherein sirens of ambulances will be fitted with a ‘Smart Siren’ transmitter device and linked to the hardware system of the traffic signals, to receive the transmitting signals. Once the mSiren device is activated in the ambulance during an emergency, the traffic junction siren would be turned on in real time, and when the ambulance reaches within 200 metres of the traffic signal, the Light Emitting Diode (LED) board would announce the approaching of the emergency ambulance through the audio system, and would also alert the traffic police personnel posted at the traffic junction to facilitate the smooth and fast movement of the ambulance. Once the ambulance passes the traffic signal, the public address system would thank the road users for their assistance.
In the first phase, the city police have tied up with three hospitals: Kauvery Hospital, Rela Hospital and Gleneagles Global Hospital, and installed the mSiren device in 25 ambulances. The police have also interlinked the mSiren device with 16 major traffic junctions, with plans to expand this to 40 junctions.
Joint Police Commissioner (Traffic South) N.M. Mayilvahanan, was also present at the inauguration.