NHTSA Calls Next Generation 911 Nearly Field-Test Ready
The Dept. of Transportation hopes this year to run initial field tests of its Next Generation 911 project but needs a location, Laurie Flaherty, a leader of the program for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said Tues. Key decisions on the program will be made the next few months, Flaherty told the National Emergency Number Assn.’s annual D.C. meeting.
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NHTSA wants to “transition from what is available today to what we want to make available,” Flaherty said, calling the next 6 months key. “We're looking in the future to be able to transmit not only voice but text as well as video and data sets from a variety of devices,” she said: “We really want the input of groups like NENA. You guys do this stuff every day. We need the reality check.”
The next-generation 911 system will accommodate “long distance” 911 access and allow location-specific emergency alerts to various mobile devices. NHTSA hopes the program will reduce highway deaths via faster, better informed responses to accidents.
A team led by Booz Allen Hamilton that is devising the architecture recently submitted a draft for review, Flaherty said. Late this year, NHTSA wants to choose a location for field tests. “We're looking at trying to make this as ‘live versus lab’ as we can,” she said.
The next generation effort was among the most significant programs begun under his stewardship, former Transportation Secy. Norman Mineta told a NENA lunch. “Things will be a little bit easier when wireless communications can pinpoint the exact location of a car crash, or we can think about a future where wireless devices relay life saving medical information even as someone lies unconscious, or a future where evacuation alerts can instantly notify people about toxic chemical spills or a bridge that’s been wiped out,” he said.