Evansville Firetrucks Equipped with Stoplight-Changing Technology

Evansville IN

08 April, 2022

9:50 AM

Description

By John Gibson, WNIN April 8, 2022 New technology is expected to improve Evansville Fire Department response times and safety at local intersections. All EFD vehicles have been outfitted with Applied Information devices. Division Chief Mike Larson tells us how they work: "The signal is sent from the truck to a receiver on the stoplight that preempts that light from the cycle that it was in, changes it, and allows our approaching emergency vehicle or our firetrucks to get the green light." Larson says the stoplight-changing technology could improve firefighter response times by 20-to-25 percent. He also says fewer stops and less braking could improve gas mileage and reduce wear-and-tear: "We're pretty excited to see how much money we could and will potentially save over the course of time when we get a chance to kind of crunch those numbers." Larson says all of the city's 230+ traffic lights have been upgraded to respond to the new devices. He says state and federal grants covered most of the costs. WNIN is the NPR/PBS affiliate in Evansville, Indiana. We serve Southwestern Indiana, Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois from our multimedia facility located on the Ohio River in downtown Evansville. For the past several years, the recognized quality of our local news has placed us among the best small market radio news organizations in the nation.