COLONIE – Assemblyman Phil Steck, D- Colonie helped secure a $2.4 million federal grant for emergency medical service (EMS) agencies in a partnership between Colonie, Guilderland, and Clifton Park. This funding will be used to pilot a safety initiative intended to prevent crashes and improve post-crash care.
According to the Department of Transportation (DOT) website, the funds are provided through the federal Infrastructure Law for 385 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. These grants go directly to regional, local, and Tribal communities for implementation, planning, and demonstration projects driven at the local level to improve safety and help prevent deaths and serious injuries on the nation’s roadways.
“Our award-winning local EMS departments are the best in the business. I’m always proud to help fund new initiatives to keep our neighborhoods safe,” Steck said.
Often, there is little federal funding for first responders and paramedics, which makes this a unique opportunity. While Colonie had only initially looked for a couple hundred thousand to install HAAS units in the ambulances, by collaborating with the other towns, they were able to secure almost triple the funding and allow the advancements to be extended to the neighboring areas.
“We [wrote] this grant back in June, and it was an exciting opportunity,” said Colonie EMS Assistant Chief Robbie MacCue. “I think it is a great perspective; to see EMS as an opportunity to make the streets safer.”
MacCue said that the coming-together of the grant has a two-phase approach. The first part involves investigating technologies like transponders that will alert oncoming traffic of emergency vehicles in the vicinity.
When a responding vehicle turns on their sirens, a HAAS transponder installed inside the ambulance will send a notification to the vehicle’s infotainment system, alerting them of emergency vehicles in the area. According to MacCue, this will provide an extra few seconds for drivers to slow down and move over. When drivers are compliant, it offers some protection to providers operating on high speed roads.
“That’s our biggest thing: people are distracted, so if this sends you a message saying ‘there’s an emergency vehicle ahead’, that’s our big hope. ” Town of Colonie EMS Chief Paul Sugrue said.
One drawback to the alert system is the reality that not all vehicles on the road are modern. However, there are some workarounds with certain navigation apps such as Waze. Those in older vehicles using modern GPS systems on their phones can receive the alerts while driving and using the app. MacCue said that he and his team successfully tested the app’s effectiveness with their first unit, as they’d been keeping tabs on the technology for the last two years.
Another important matter is information technology. At the scene of an accident, there’s the potential for unresponsive victims. Sugrue said that this is an important factor in the second phase of the grant program: creating a health information exchange that will allow paramedics to better identify and assist injured individuals.
“When you get there, if the patient can’t talk to you, you don’t know anything about them .” Sugrue said.
While emergency information logged into a cell phone is valuable, such as emergency contacts or medical conditions, MacCue hopes for a more standardized information sharing system to assist injured individuals.
MacCue also believes being able to pull in technology, such as the On-Star system, could also be beneficial, sharing that information can get lost along the way when 911 is alerted. With the grant money, EMS can open the pathways to make sure information pipelines are secure, and make a pass from whatever device or vehicle, through the 911 system, and to the paramedics. This would allow first responders to have information to go off of when aiding victims who may suffer from bleeding disorders, for example, MacCue said.
As of right now there is no expected time Colonie EMS has two HAAS units that will be installed in the vehicles.
MacCue said that while they’re still in the early stages, they hope the program can be scaled up.
“While the grant is written for improving roadway safety, I think it opens the doors for us to create a standard for more of this data to be used and to be used in a way that supports community members in need.” MacCue said.
This story was featured on page 7 of the January 10th , 2024 print edition of the Colonie Spotlight
