ISO standard on automatic road safety and emergency messages will get help to victims quicker

When a road crash occurs, a rapid medical response can often mean the difference between life and death for the victims.

To help emergency centres dispatch the appropriate life-saving staff and equipment to crash scenes faster, an ISO International Standard helps ensure that automatic safety-related messages from the vehicle are immediately understood by emergency services.

In the event of a road accident, which may have left the vehicle passengers in shock, injured or unconscious, vehicles equipped with a crash sensor automatically notify emergency services of the location, time and direction of the vehicle. This information helps to ensure that the victims receive medical attention as quickly as possible. Such automatic messages can be critical when the accident occurs in areas where a crash site may go undetected for hours – and occasionally days. By transmitting messages that will be unambiguously understood by emergency services, rescue teams can reach the scene more rapidly and with adequate support.

ISO 24978:2009, Intelligent transport systems – ITS Safety and emergency messages using any available wireless media – Data registry procedures, enables relevant parties to immediately understand the precise and clear meaning of an emergency safety-related message.

ISO 24978 helps make information provided by the vehicle understandable at the point of reception by emergency and rescue services. The benefits are clear and significant, particularly for incidents that take place in remote areas or far from the town centre. Statistics show that knowledge of the exact location reduces the response time of the rescue teams by 40 % in built-up areas and 50 % in rural environments.

The safety and emergency messages data registry is not just for crash situations. For example, a vehicle may drive over ice or through fog, and pass a message to other vehicles nearby, or to the local road management centre, alerting them of the danger. Conversely, a local road management centre may have information from ice, wind and fog sensors and send the message to vehicles approaching particular danger points. The metadata for such messages is stored in the safety and emergency data registry so that it can be understood when received.

This standard provides the framework in which to operate a common data registry – a repository of these safety-related messages and data concepts. It provides a standardized set of protocols, parameters, and a method of management of an updateable data registry. The standard applies to any available wireless media in order to improve the veracity of receipt of crash information.

According to the Global Status Report on Road Safety published by the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1.3 million die annually, and between 20 and 50 million sustain injuries. Globally, losses due to road accidents are estimated at USD 518 billion, or about one percent to three percent of gross nation product (GNP).

A number of intelligent transport systems/eSafety initiatives, such as "eCall" and "Automatically Crash Notification" crash messaging systems, are being developed to halve this carnage within a decade. The European eCall project has an ambitious target to automatically provide, across the whole of Europe, a common "minimum set of data" to public service assistance providers in the event of a crash.

ISO 24978 plays an important role in Europe's eCall project. It is also useful for non-emergency services such as car manufactures in order to quickly identify and rectify design and software faults and reduce their exposure to liabilities.

Article & Image Credits: ISOorg