SCRANTON, Pa. — The Move Over Law in Pennsylvania is meant to protect police, fire, and workers from being injured, and it's important for drivers to be aware.
All the Scranton Fire Department's vehicles now have an added layer of protection, with the addition of new technology.
"Anything that we could do to alert drivers out on the highway that we're operating on a scene. Typically, our focus is on the safety and the treatment of the patients that may be involved in an accident," said Scranton Fire Chief John Judge.
The HAAS Safety Cloud system is a collision-prevention service that connects emergency lights and sirens with navigation apps, like Waze. Drivers using compatible apps will receive a notification when approaching an emergency.
"They'll get some early notification, and it will actually hopefully have them slowing down."
The system is also beneficial to other fire trucks that are going to cross the same route headed to an emergency. It will send a notification to prevent a possible collision.
"If this technology is able to save one accident, one injury, one life, it's going to pay for itself twentyfold," the chief said.
Chief Judge says having this system onboard each vehicle will help them collect information to see where it's been most helpful.
"We get the numbers of people that were alerted at each incident scene. We get that report monthly. It's automatically sent to us, and we take a look at it. Then we see what the reductions in speed are, and you know, some of the data in just a short couple of months that we're already doing this. Obviously, it's a help."
There are also other fire departments in Lackawanna County using this system to help protect first responders.
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