Skip to main content

Emergency response day kicks off at ITS America in Pittsburgh

Don’t forget to make some time for Emergency Response Day 2015 tomorrow--an annual event at the ITS America Annual Meeting and Expo since 2011. Conference attendees will have the ability to engage with emergency responders as they act out a Traffic Incident Management (TIM) scenario, complete with a planning meeting, training, a staged incident and after-action review. Local first responders will participate, including firefighters, police, tow vehicles and traffic management engineers from Allegheny County
June 1, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Don’t forget to make some time for Emergency Response Day 2015 tomorrow--an annual event at the ITS America Annual Meeting and Expo since 2011. Conference attendees will have the ability to engage with emergency responders as they act out a Traffic Incident Management (TIM) scenario, complete with a planning meeting, training, a staged incident and after-action review. Local first responders will participate, including firefighters, police, tow vehicles and traffic management engineers from Allegheny County.

A hack-a-thon will also be held in the afternoon. Conference attendees, first responders and participants from local universities will work together to develop application ideas to solve major data, communications and safety issues in the world of TIM and emergency response. The winning application will be invited to the Emergency Response Symposium in September held by ITS New York and the Transportation Safety Advancement Group to present their application to industry leaders.

“We really want to get ITS technology companies to think about emergency response and how they can make first responders’ jobs easier,” said Doug Smith, director of transportation planning for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. “It’s a great opportunity to get these two groups together to come up with solutions for safety and traffic management.”

The day will start at 9:30 am in room 336 (upstairs from the exhibit hall) with a welcome address and an overview of the day’s events. Emergency responders will then demonstrate the lifecycle of the TIM process from planning to debriefing with a focus on where data and new applications could assist first responders. Teams will be formed via speed dating format, and the Data Jam, essentially a hack-a-thon, will begin after lunch. The winning application will be announced at 4:30 pm.

Emergency Response Day 2015 is sponsored by Transportation Safety Advancement Group (TSAG) and the Motorola Solutions Foundation. The event is free for conference attendees, students and emergency responders in uniform.

Related Content

  • European satellite navigation competition 2012
    April 10, 2012
    For the ninth time, the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) is looking for the world's best ideas for applications in the field of satellite navigation. HPI Fleet, a European independent fleet management company, is supporting the ESNC 2012 as the new title sponsor and is looking for innovative ideas that facilitate the mobility of people. This is also the first year in which the European Commission is funding the competition's prize pool and Nokia Location & Commerce will be providing further
  • MaaS must be seamless and invisible - or forget it
    June 5, 2018
    MaaS experts from around the world converged on ITS International’s MaaS Market Atlanta conference to talk about how MaaS can be implemented in the US. Andrew Bardin Williams had a front row seat. Transportation experts from around the world gathered in the US earlier this month to discuss the future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and how it could be deployed in the US market. While most attendees at ITS International’s MaaS Market Atlanta conference were familiar with the MaaS concept, the US’s highly
  • ITS benefits escape public
    June 8, 2015
    John Kendall considers the public’s awareness of the benefits of ITS. While the results of developing ITS technology may be clear to readers of ITS International, there is far less evidence that drivers have any appreciation of what the technology is doing for them. So how aware are drivers of the developments that are designed to make their journeys less congested and safer?
  • Movmi and Loud Mobility to run shared mobility summer school
    June 24, 2024
    EIT Urban Mobility-certified course takes place in London from 20-22 August 2024