Rocky Mountain Tracking

By Greg Bartlett

By now, everyone knows that GPS car tracking systems can be a real life saver in the event of an accident. What most do not know is that having such systems installed in commercial delivery vehicles can save lives as well.

I ran across the story of a man with epilepsy the other day that brought this information to the forefront. According to the article I read, the man was getting up in years and very frail. He had an epileptic seizure that got the attention of his nearest neighbor who called 911. Paramedics were quick to arrive on the scene and attempt to stabilize the man to transport him to the hospital.

Traffic was so bad that day that the ambulance was severely delayed in its journey to the nearest hospital. Realizing that the window for effective treatment would probably be past before the ambulance could reach the hospital, the chief paramedic on board contacted the hospital and requested the chief of medicine. The paramedic asked about the status of a shipment of anti-convulsant medication being delivered to the hospital that day and was told that it was en route but about 15 minutes away.

The quick thinking paramedic requested that the shipment be rerouted to meet the ambulance so that the medication could be administered to save the life of the patient. The hospital ordered this routing change and the man survived.

Had the delivery vehicle that was carrying that lifesaving medication not been equipped with a GPS tracking system, the hospital would not have had a clue where it was and how close. There would have been no way to reroute the driver to meet the ambulance as it came toward the hospital, and the patient may very well have died en route.

This is a clear case where a GPS tracking device put into a commercial vehicle for a totally unrelated purpose was useful in saving a life that had nothing to do with an automobile accident. The ability of the hospital’s chief of medicine to find the exact location of that truck and send it to meet the ambulance was a bonus that nobody could have foreseen.

GPS car tracking systems have many different benefits, from aiding in the recovery of stolen property to monitoring the movements of a spouse suspected of infidelity. They are also life saving devices in more ways than one.

By Greg Bartlett

One of the unfortunate difficulties of growing old in today’s world is the onset of the degenerative disease known as Alzheimer’s dementia. This disease is several orders of magnitude more debilitating than regular dementia of senility. With Alzheimer’s dementia, elderly patients often become disoriented and wander away from their home or nursing facility.

Unfortunately, many of these patients have become lost and have died due to exposure before anyone could locate them and bring them back to a safe location. The advent of GPS tracking technology has made it possible to prevent this type of tragedy from ever happening again. GPS tracking can actually save the lives of patients suffering with Alzheimer’s dementia.

When an Alzheimer’s patient wanders away from where he lives, it is not uncommon to find this individual up to a half mile from where he is supposed to be located. Unfortunately it is all too easy for a person to disappear in such a large area so that locating him in time to save him from the elements can be difficult to impossible.

A GPS personal tracking device can be placed on the body of the Alzheimer’s patient so that when he goes missing, the device can be activated and rescuers can be directed to the location of the signal within just a few minutes to determine the condition of the individual and get him medical care if needed and return him to the proper location. The presence of the tracking device can prevent the person from being lost until it is too late to save him.

Even less severely impaired patients can become disoriented from time to time. It can be beneficial to have a personal tracking device placed on elderly people who have shown signs of any variety of dementia. This can prevent them from wandering away and becoming lost because they can be located with the device in a very short time frame.

Elderly people living at home can benefit from a GPS personal tracking device as well as those living in nursing centers or other skilled care facilities. The families of patients suffering with dementia can rest easier knowing that they can activate the device at any time and keep tabs on the location of their relatives at any time. Knowing that their elderly relative is safe at home brings a great deal of peace of mind and locating them in the event they wander off can save their lives.

By Greg Bartlett

GPS car tracking is a technology that has moved from the geeky extreme to the mainstream. It has moved from being in thousand dollar gadgets to an accessory on telephones and hand held gaming consoles. GPS uses signals relayed from satellites in Low Earth Orbit to locate any point on the planet’s surface by triangulation. The signals are encoded with a timestamp for the time that they were broadcast, and by comparing the time of transmission to the time of reception (and signal strength), it’s possible to make a computer algorithm that can accurately position objects on the surface of the earth to within a foot.

While most people are aware of GPS in relation to GPS navigation systems, there is another application that’s gaining widespread adoption: vehicle tracking. When used in car tracking, a GPS system can be remotely signaled to transmit its location. This makes it possible to locate a vehicle almost instantly. Indeed, some search and rescue equipment is designed for low over-flight that can trigger these types of systems to find vehicles that have been driven off the road or into remote areas.

Recently, with the heavy snow storms of late 2008, this type of GPS driven car tracking system has made the news: A college student, out on vacation skiing, accidentally drove off the road in Colorado, rolling her car in the process. She was pinned with a broken leg in the car and too far away from the cell phone network to call for help. But her car (which was a gift from her parents on her high school graduation) had a GPS tracking system, and it started to broadcast automatically when the car was inverted. With the snow coming down and an estimated foot or more of snow expected, she probably would’ve died if a spotting plane hadn’t picked up the GPS signal, letting Colorado Department of Highway Safety officers know her location.

This demonstrates that GPS vehicle tracking should have a place in most, if not all, cars after they are purchased. They greatly increase the personal safety of the passengers of the car, and some can even be triggered by a passenger inside of the car if the car has been stolen while they’re in it. Consider making it a standard feature in the vehicle you own. It may save your life, and is likely to pay for itself in peace of mind in no time.

One parent, who also writes for his local newspaper, penned a column stating that as a journalist he has written too many articles about young people having their lives cut short by car accidents. So when one of his teenaged children was recently given a driver’s license he could not help but think on all of those stories he had done on teens behind the wheel in car crashes. As he continued to think, he also remembered all of the times he had driven recklessly when he was a teenager.

All of this thinking about what can when teenager get behind the wheel, led this father to action: he decided to make use of a GPS tracking device to keep track of his son’s driving habits and whereabouts. Don’t get us wrong, we know that getting a driver’s license is a very important rite of passage for teenagers. And they do need to get driving experience under their belts—how else will they learn? At the same time, parents cannot help but be nervous. Teens are fun and energetic, but they also tend to take more risks than adults do. Still, the way the world works, people cannot wait until they are past the teen years to start to learn to drive. This is why parents often decide to use a precautionary measure, such as a GPS tracking device, when they let their teens out on the road.

Auto accidents are the number one killer of teens. Almost 6,000 teens die every year in auto accidents. Teens account for 14% of all motor vehicle accident deaths. 5,288 teens died in motor vehicle accidents in 2005 in the U.S. Crashes are the leading cause of death among teens, accounting for more than one-third of all deaths of 16 to 18 year-olds.

While your teen certainly does not have to be one of these statistics, you do need to recognize the risks involved. Teens often make poor decisions and deliberately seek thrills. And they are even more likely to engage is dangerous behavior like speeding when they have passengers in the vehicle.

Getting a teen tracking device not only helps you to look out for one of your most precious assets–your teen–it also means that you are taking precautions to prevent other drivers from being injured as well.

A GPS tracking device can alert you to unsafe driving behaviors so that you can talk to your teen and take whatever other action you think is necessary.