Texas

MedStar Keeps Drivers In Check With DriveCams

January 7, 2015 / 8:19 PM CST / CBS Texas

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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Sirens and high speeds are a recipe for big accidents. That's why one local ambulance company has a new system it hopes will keep people safer by preventing accidents before they ever happen. Last year, the MedStar tried out DriveCams by the company Lytx.

It's a system that has a forward and rear-facing camera, plus it notes location and speed in a vehicle. The cameras record all the time, but the system doesn't save unless there's an event to trigger it, like a big acceleration and even then, it only records for the 8 seconds before and about 4 seconds after the incident. Those four seconds are proven to be enough time to cover most of what happens in an accident. And it's also plenty of time for MedStar Risk and Safety Manager Shaun Curtis. "We had a lot of risk in our driving that we recognized," Curtis explains.

Risks such as speeding. Curtis says speeding was one of the biggest issues they spotted early on after installing the DriveCams. Ambulances are allowed to go 10 miles over a posted speed limit when responding to an emergency, but often in the adrenaline to respond, excessive speed can result.

There's also the issue of speed limits changing on the road. That's one thing that tripped up MedStar supervisor Marshall Sharp. As a supervisor, he was one of the first to have DriveCams installed.

"It caught me off guard," says Sharp. "I always thought I was a good driver, safe driver, Sharp explains. "I would be going along at 65 miles an hour on the road and the next thing I know my camera light is going off -- oh I look at it again, the speed limit drops to 50 here."

Sharp now counsels other MedStar drivers. Generally, he shows them the tape and it speaks for itself. He showed up one example where a crew was going 57 mph, when they has just gotten off the highway onto an access road where the speed limit was 40 mph. In catching issues like these and teaching drivers to do better, MedStar hopes to improve overall safety. So far it's working.

MedStar says they've seen a 65 percent decrease in speed violations and a 50 percent decrease in incidents of following too closely. Drivers, who were at first leery about the program being too 'Big Brother', have now warmed up to it, even making funny videos through a self-record function.

"There was a lot of fear there," says Curtis, "because you're going to be nitpicking everything I do. The reality of the system is that it is purely a safety enhancement."

It also has helped MedStar clear its drivers in some accidents. They were able to check videos quickly and have a compelling argument that their drivers were not to blame. All of this was enough to convince Sharp. He has a 15-year-old who's about to drive. Says Sharp, "I am really considering doing this for her in the car that she's going to have."

He can; at about $50 a month Lytx makes a consumer model.

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