You know that feeling when someone in the car next to you is blasting music with heavy bass?
Your car windows shake. Your feet feel the vibrations on the floorboards.
It’s pretty annoying.
But the Valley’s regional paramedic service is harnessing that bass for the better good.
Valley Emergency Medical Services (VEMS) has installed new sirens in four of its six trucks. The sirens, called “Howlers,” use low frequency tones to create vibrations in other cars.
The idea is that the sound of the siren, plus the sensation of the vibrations, will make people react quicker to the approaching ambulance, and pull off to the side of the road.
More people pulling over = fewer accidents with approaching emergency vehicles, according to VEMS Executive Director Robert Petinella.
The crazy thing: It actually works.
“I’m very surprised at how quickly they move out of the way,” said Dawn Macharelli, the operations supervisor for VEMS.
“I do notice they move over much quicker,” Macharelli said. “They are much more responsive.”
Petinella said the sirens only cost about $200 more than a regular siren, which are normally priced at about $400 each.
VEMS purchased the new sirens from Whelen Engineering, a Connecticut-based company. Seymour’s Communications Services installed the new equipment.
VEMS decided that as it replaces old vehicles, it will install the Howler sirens in all new vehicles it brings into service, Petinella said.
In the next six months, they hope to have another truck outfitted with the siren.
“We had to upgrade our equipment anyway,” Petinella said. “Seeing as the technology was not that much more expensive, we decided to try it.”
VEMS serves Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton. Petinella said all the driving the paramedics do mean they are in danger of getting into more accidents.
In the past three years, however, no VEMS trucks have been in an accident while responding to an emergency, Petinella said. The siren will help make sure that trend continues, he added.
The Howler portion of the siren is only turned on when paramedics approach a busy intersection, or are on the highway where cars might not hear the siren as easily. It stays on for only 20 seconds at a time, to prevent paramedics’ long-term exposure to the sound.
“It works in conjunction with the siren,” he said. “It’s not bass, or simply music. It’s still a siren. It just changes the tone of the siren. It’s really quite neat.”
