REDUCING HIGHWAY DEATHS AND DISABILITIES WITH AUTOMATIC WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF SERIOUS INJURY PROBABILITY RATINGS FROM CRASH RECORDERS TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES PROVIDERS

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued recommendations for crash recorders (H-97-18 and H-97-21) and for increasing funding for motor vehicle safety efforts at the State level (H-96-13). This paper addresses the building of a national Automatic Lifesaving System based on these pioneering NTSB recommendations to realize the full potential of new technologies as soon as possible. The work described in this paper is the result of efforts of a multidisciplinary team of trauma surgeons, emergency physicians, crashworthiness engineers and statisticians. The team examined the safety potential of communicating crash recorder data via wireless telecommunications with Automatic Crash Notification technology to improve emergency transport and treatment of crash victims.