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Oklahoma Ambulances Debut Sirens That You Can Feel
djupedal writes "Booming like a 1980s video game, the Howler can even make liquids ripple — Oklahoma's largest ambulance company will become the first ambulance service in the nation to outfit its entire fleet with new Howler sirens, designed to emit low-frequency tones that penetrate objects within 200 feet — such as cars — to alert drivers." This is all well and fine, but I wonder what they plan to do when their sirens call up one of the big worms from deep below?
... I'm not so sure people are going to get out of the way of a truck blaring C+C Music Factory.
They're bringing change you can feel.
Oh, wait that was Oklahoma?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
http://sadtech.blogspot.com/2006/01/sirens.html
Oklahoma Ambulance siren sued for sexual harassment.
They can just mount all those old Federal Thunderbolt sirens to the ambulances.
They only weigh... what? couple hundred pounds? Not including mompressor?
I miss the sound of Federal Thunderbolts. I hate the tornado sirens around here.
(How picky is that?)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order- Ed Howdershelt Via Tass
I wonder how disruptive this is, especially for sensitive situations like evacuations due to explosives, etc.
Just imagine a bunch of cars all parked tightly on a nice street. Now imagine half of them chiming in with their own sirens when their shock sensors get set off.
This is a lot more interesting than most of the stuff that gets posted to Idle.
Anyways, from TFA:
"The ambulance without the Howler sounded its siren and produced its familiar wail. Then, the Howler, which produced booms that sounded like a 1980s video game played at an earsplitting level. The liquids in the three glasses rippled."
I really hope that the howler is used sparingly, especially since I live right off a busy street and get some type of emergency vehicle coming by with sirens and lights at least once a day. I especially hope that the howler siren doesn't need to be played at an "earsplitting" level in order to be effective.
They had to park two ambulances next to each other with the glasses of water in between, and turning on the howler's to the loud-as-fuck volume just made the water ripple? Why don't they just have the T-rex from Jurassic Park follow the ambulance around? Dumbasses...
Srsly u guys. U guys, srsly.
> The most frequent thing motorists say to us is they didn't see the ambulance coming
OK, but what about hearing the ambulances? I think the real problem here - stupidity - won't be solved by the new sirens. And what about the seismometers?
Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
So far this year, EMSA vehicles have been involved in 16 intersection accidents, typically caused by an unyielding driver. Fifteen of those times, the ambulances were on a call, said EMSA spokeswoman Tina Wells.
16 in a year is nothing. If the Howler is as loud as they say, watch this number go up as motorists cover their ears or have heart attacks while driving.
I started to try and figure out what that would look like, and quickly discovered I do not want to know...
Experience teaches only the teachable. -AH
So - where is a link to the maker of such an infrasound device? All I've found is links to the press releases and a $400 pricetag
I always thought that emergency vehicles should be equipped with a method of sending a signal that would be picked up by the automobiles on the road and provide an in-car cue that "hey, pay attention stupid--there's an ambulance!".
Of course, there are privacy concerns (I guess) and people never want to be inconvenienced, so I'm sure the idea would flop. But to me, that seems like a good solution. I would say 99% of the time that the siren isn't heard is because music is on/too loud.
Starmen.net
This ambulance goes to 11!
>This is all well and fine, but I wonder what they plan to do when their sirens call up one of the big worms from deep below?
You moron, that only happens in the open desert. If you stay in the spaceports and behind the shield walls you'll never have any problems. Of course, if you're a spice miner or you pilot a carryall, well, that's a different story....
I doubt it will help hear over a ghetto blaster car stereo. I still think more blinky lights, lasers, searchlights, etc. are a better option.
stuff |
With all the idiots with 2000 watt power amps installed in their vehicles, I doubt they will even be heard at all. I can hear most cars in the neighborhood several blocks away, clearly.
...when somebody claims it caused a miscarriage.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I ride a motorcycle, so I have come to the opinion that 90% of the drivers out there in their 'shiny metal boxes' are idiots.
I've come to the decision that all cars should be equipped with a flashing light on the dashboard or the steering wheel - RIGHT in front of the drivers face - that triggers whenever an emergency vehicle with lights/sirens is within a certain distance. In most urban areas now, emergency vehicles are equipped with signal devices that trigger traffic lights for them. Why not apply the same reaction to inside warning lights for the cars? Shoot - turn off their sound systems at the same time.
In the USA, we over-regulate vehicle safety standards already, to the point of goofiness, why not go ahead and add one more? One that actually has the potential to save lives?
-- I really need to bleed off some of this
http://www.whelen.com/details_prod.php?head_id=9&cat_id=68&prod_id=415
Now I am wondering how to get one of these and tie it into my passenger car horn...
Horns are NOT what they used to be...
Is this REALLY necessary? These monstrosities are going to structurally damage buildings just for that one or two times a year when someone might not here and ambulance coming?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_note
Given that this new siren plays "baby got back", where do you think they got the idea?
Any word on what those penetrating low frequencies will do to hard drives?
Actually add one more feature - directionality. Half the time when I hear a siren I can't tell where it's coming from. In France I can tell whether it's coming towards me or going away, and it's a big improvement.
As a sometimes cyclist of the motored and non-motored kind, as well as being a car driver, I've been on both sides of near accidents, so I have both bike-rage and "oops, I didn't see you" guilt. I think it would be great if motorcycles constantly emitted some kind of "I'm passing on your left, stupid" sound that you would only hear from about one car-length away. Harleys already have that effect built in, though not exactly for that purpose.
At least it will keep the ant-lions away!
It is well known that low freq sound can cause illness. Nausea and general sense of illbeing.
The paramedics arrive to too sick to function?
I can't smoke in many places now, but for some reason it is fine to make noise bursts that could seriously damage your hearing.
As a sound engineer, I rely on my ears for my living.
If it's loud enough to feel through a car, it's loud enough to damage your hearing.
The restrictions for live music peak db are way less than this siren.
Our ambulance is outfitted with just a regular Whelen siren, but we've considered airhorns in the past (real airhorns, not the fake electronic crap on the siren. Turns out people move if you sound like a train).
I even read about this particular siren last year, in the Whelen magazine we get every month or so. It looks like a bass amplifier with some nice subwoofers, for what it's worth.
In any case, we're in northeast NJ. Traffic sucks, drivers suck, and people do stupid shit all the time. An airhorn would be useful. But as for Oklahoma, I don't really know if this would be necessary. It's kinda empty...
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
Make it illegal to have those incredibly annoying and anti-social boom-blasting sound systems in cars (and homes too, while we're at it).
The problem is that when most people hear a siren they freeze. It's the same as in the military. When the explosions start most people freeze. Even with trained troops a large percentage act like a deer in the headlights. It's as instinctual as with the deer and it's a halmark of a lot of social animals. Personally I would use a recording of an authoritative voice and flashing spotlights designed to shine on individual cars in the way.
This sounds similar to the Federal Signal Rumbler system, which supplements existing sirens on a police car, and works like a subwoofer.
The Rumber has been available for quite a while now.
I was holding out for Sirens that could feel me .
Have these things been adequately tested? I live a block away from a firehouse and I don't want to go deaf in five years because of this.
If sound waves are not the answer, what is?
Maybe lights that flash???
When it's 5:07 and everyone in Downtown Tulsa takes the same bloody highway to the suburbs, it's not so 'empty'...
I don't think this is planned for the rural counties with a dozen families per square mile. They don't need it there - the negligent, noise-drowned drivers are in the cities: OKC, Tulsa, Norman, etc.
Here in Europe, emergency services are experimenting with RDS.
The TA and TP functions can switch a car stereo from whatever source it's playing to a specific radio channel. This is currently used for traffic announcements, but if you put a transmitter in an emergency vehicle it would be able to alert the cars around it without having to resort to earthshattering noise.
I've come to the decision that all cars should be equipped with a flashing light on the dashboard or the steering wheel - RIGHT in front of the drivers face - that triggers whenever an emergency vehicle with lights/sirens is within a certain distance.
Actually, something like that would be nice. I don't drive with any music on, talk on the phone, etc. but I still don't always hear the emergency vehicles until they are really close. Most of the time I see one before I hear it.
Cars are just so soundproofed now, it takes a lot to get through. Now, driving my hubby's motorcycle or dad's army jeep... my ears die whenever a siren goes off, but at least I'm not cutting in front of them at an intersection.
Brown note.
If you don't know what you're doing, you can't make mistakes.
Existing police/ambulence sirens are already loud enough to cause temporary pain to pedestrians and cyclists. Also it's quite dangerous when some idiot switches a siren on while overtaking a cyclist, because you tense up as a reflex and therefore swerve. In my experience this applies more to police than ambulance drivers.
I understand the issue about alerting idiot car drivers, but injuring other types of road users is not the way, so if anyone uses one of these next to me I'll sue. [Ironically my captcha is bastards!]
We have wormsign the likes of which even GOD has never seen!
So much for my holography lab!