OnStar system alerts first responders about serious injuries
OnStar has developed an Injury Severity Prediction system that will let OnStar advisors alert first responders when a vehicle crash is likely to have caused serious injury to the occupants, said Catherine McCormick, the service line manager for the company’s Emergency Services division.
“The Injury Severity Prediction will be available on all vehicles equipped with Automatic Crash Response technology,” she said. “Automatic Crash Response, first introduced on the 2004 Chevy Malibu, evolved from airbag deployment notification systems, which alert OnStar Advisors if a subscriber’s airbag has deployed.”
Using a collection of built-in vehicle sensors, OnStar’s Automatic Crash Response system sends crash data to an advisor if the vehicle is involved in a moderate or severe front, rear or side-impact crash. The data includes crash severity, along with the direction of impact, air bag deployment, multiple impacts and vehicle type. Such information will then be used to automatically calculate the Injury Severity Prediction which comes back as a normal or high score, McCormick said. When an advisor tells first responders there is an Injury Severity Prediction of high it will signify that there is a higher risk of severe injury and help the responders determine what level of care required and the transport destination for patients.
“First responders will be able to respond to an incident with more information,” she said.
McCormick said the company will continue to work with the first responder communities to educate them about this new enhancement to help them make use of the Injury Severity Prediction as an additional tool in their triage decisions in addition to the existing crash data elements that are still available to advisors.
