By Andrew Liszewski
I don’t care how important you think you are or how much of a hurry you’re in, you should always pull over to the side of the road when you hear emergency vehicles approaching. But there always seems to be some idiot blocking the way who didn’t hear the approaching siren because their music was blaring too loud. And that’s exactly the reason why Oklahoma is outfitting 77 EMSA ambulances across the state with a low frequency tone siren known as the Howler. The ambulances will still be equipped with their standard high frequency sirens, but the extreme low frequencies coming from the Howler will allow motorists to actually feel the ambulance coming, no matter how cranked their stereo might be.
It costs about $400 per ambulance to install the Howler siren, but when you consider that the average repair cost for a speeding ambulance that’s been involved in a crash is around $14-$16,000, the upgrades should be well worth it in the long run. The new sirens will also help reduce response times if more drivers are aware of the approaching emergency vehicle and get out of the way like they should.
[ Tulsa World – A siren you can feel coming ] VIA [ Medgadget ]
