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Last month, ISP announced their dispatching system is sending
information to Waze and Google to add notifications to
navigation systems alerting drivers of state troopers on the
sides of roads. Wednesday in Springfield, HAAS Alert Chief
Executive Officer Cory Hohs said the new addition will be for
certain models of vehicles, 2018 and up.
“Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Chrysler, most recently Volkswagen and
Mercedes Benz,” Hohs said. “And there’s no cost, which is most
important, to the driver. All of a sudden these alerts just
start showing up and they have them without having to do
anything to the vehicle.”
Such vehicles are connected to a safety cloud to allow for
direct notification to the vehicle.
Hohs explained the system alerts drivers within 28 seconds on
approach after ISP sends to the cloud their location on the side
of the road anywhere in Illinois for any reason.
“The reason that number is important is because the research
shows that’s enough time for drivers to safely look around, slow
down, turn the music down, and move over a lane,” he said.
Illinois State Police Trooper Alex Womack is back on the job
after he was injured when a motorist slammed into his vehicle in
2019.
“I can tell you that every trooper appreciates when motorists
slow down, move over and give them space to do their job,”
Womack said.
Since 2019, two ISP troopers have been killed and more than 60
others injured in crashes where a motorist failed to move over
and slow down. |
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