CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
AIR RESOURCES BOARD
FINAL STATEMENT OF REASONS
PROPOSED DIESEL PARTICULATE MATTER CONTROL MEASURE FOR ON-ROAD HEAVY-DUTY DIESEL-FUELED VEHICLES OWNED OR OPERATED BY PUBLIC AGENCIES AND UTILITIES
Download the Report Click Here
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS – Associated Press Writer – TULSA, Okla.
You’re in the car and you’ve got the radio cranked up insanely loud. Chances are, you’re not going to hear that ambulance siren wailing behind you.
Soon, even if you can’t hear it, you’ll be able to feel when an emergency vehicle is coming.
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.
The Emergency Medical Services Authority has equipped one ambulance with the new siren and plans to have them installed on all 77 units in Oklahoma within six months.
Officials say the sirens are ideal for cutting through a sea of traffic, and give emergency responders another tool to let drivers know an ambulance is heading their way.
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.
"The most frequent thing motorists say to us is they didn’t see the ambulance coming," Wells said at a Tuesday news conference, where the new technology was demonstrated.
During the demonstration, two ambulances were parked near each other. A plastic stepladder with three glasses of liquid on top was placed in between the vehicles.
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. Wells jokingly said the new sirens sounded like "a vacuum cleaner on steroids."
"It’s going to make going through intersections much safer," said Tulsa Police Officer Mike Avey, who has worked traffic accidents. "People are on their cell phones, people have $1,000 sound systems. You’re going to feel it."
The new sirens cost less than $400 each, meaning the entire EMSA fleet can be outfitted for less than $50,000, Wells said.
"A moderate accident is going to cost $15,000 in body damage alone," Wells said. "We see the potential for recouping this almost immediately."
MEETING CORRECTION:
UPDATED CVC INFORMATION:
Dear Transportation Partners:
The California Department of Transportation submitted to the Office of Administrative Law proposed regulations that would increase the axle weight exemptions for fire apparatus, and allow a longer single-unit fire apparatus vehicle. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will be published in the California Regulatory Notice Register on Friday, October 31, 2008. That date will begin a 45-day comment period.
For more information, please see the attached cover letter and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
(See attached file: Fire Apparatus Letter 10-30-08.pdf)(See attached file:
Fire Apparatus – Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.doc)
Please feel free to forward this notice to interested parties.
Thank you,
Casey Robb
**************************************
Ms. Casey Robb, P.E.
California Dept. of Transportation
HQ Traffic Operations
Office of Truck Services, Truck Size Unit
Sacramento, CA
(916) 651-6125
casey_robb@dot.ca.gov
Other Important Documents:
Fire Apparatus – Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – Download .pdf
Exemption Process Explanation – Download .pdf
October 09, 2008
CHICAGO, IL — Carbon Motors Corporation announced today it will unveil the Carbon ‘E7’, the world’s first purpose-built law enforcement vehicle, during the “2008 Pure Justice Tour” of nine U.S. cities starting in Chicago, Illinois and including San Diego, California for the 115th Annual International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Conference and Exposition where over 15,000 senior law enforcement professionals will gather from all around the world.
The Carbon ‘E7’ – the temporary program code used until the law enforcement community selects a vehicle name – represents the next generation of law enforcement technology as the first vehicle in history designed and engineered from the ground up and bumper-to-bumper specifically for law enforcement operations.
Carbon Motors announced today the nine cities the ‘E7’ will visit during the 2008 Pure Justice Tour beginning Tuesday October 14, 2008 in Chicago, IL. The tour will include stops in:
Chicago, IL Tuesday, October 14 Indianapolis, IN Monday, October 20 Columbus, OH Thursday, October 23 San Diego, CA Saturday, November 8 – 12 San Jose, CA Tuesday, November 18 San Francisco, CA Saturday, November 22 – 29 Greenville, SC Thursday, December 4 – 9 Jacksonville, FL Wednesday, December 10 – 14 Tampa, FL Monday, December 15 – 19
The vehicle was well received at recent VIP sneak preview events for Tier 1 suppliers held in Detroit, MI. Further tour dates and event details will be made available at www.carbonmotors.com and is also being promoted on YouTube.com and BLUtube through the video trailer “Ours is Real”. The company will invite law enforcement and the communities they serve to view the ‘E7’ up close at each stop of the tour – and in some cases the respective state’s senior economic development officials. Carbon Motors is weighing its options for the site location of the Company where it intends to create 10,000 new direct and indirect American jobs and have a greater than $3 billion positive economic impact on the selected region over a period of ten years.
Carbon’s ‘E7’ was designed by law enforcement, for law enforcement. To date, over 1,700 law enforcement professionals, representing all 50 US States and each functional discipline of law enforcement, have volunteered their time to serve on the Carbon Council, which provides direct and unfiltered interaction with the Carbon Motors team. As a result, the vehicle will come fully equipped with a comprehensive suite of purpose-built, state-of-the-art performance and safety features utilizing the latest advancements in defense and law enforcement technology.
“The 2008 Pure Justice Tour marks this revolutionary vehicle’s debut to a first responder community that has waited far too long for a vehicle designed specifically for the high pressure and increasingly demanding work environment of law enforcement in a post-9/11 world,” said William Santana Li, chairman and chief executive officer, Carbon Motors Corporation. “The military has long used purpose-built vehicles to accomplish their unique missions. Fire engines were specifically designed to provide firefighters with water, aerial ladders or other equipment to assist them in rescue work. And even postal workers have purpose-built trucks for delivering mail. Law enforcement, by comparison, has had to settle for retail cars designed for ordinary passenger use with haphazardly and dangerously installed law enforcement equipment. The women and men who protect our communities deserve better. Carbon’s ‘E7’ will rectify this injustice.”
The vehicle will display a robust collection of world-class technological and design enhancements, including an ergonomically correct cockpit inspired by jet fighters and helicopters, a high powered clean-diesel engine capable of running on biodiesel (that will provide 40 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and will meet or exceed the driving performance of current vehicles), integrated external and internal surveillance capabilities, radar, LoJack, an automatic license plate recognition system, radiation and biological threat detectors and 360 degree, high conspicuity built-in LED emergency lighting. In addition, the ‘E7’ debuts Carbon’s proprietary On-board Rapid Command Architecture™ (ORCA™) with a large touch-screen main display and a separate touch screen keyboard providing world-class data communication and human-machine interface. The ‘E7’ will serve as an integrated homeland security platform enhancing security capabilities for the nation’s 800,000+ law enforcement first responders, while substantially lowering their current operating costs and lessening the burden on taxpayers nationwide.
Joining the Carbon Motors executives at the ‘E7’ introduction to the IACP Conference in San Diego will be past IACP president and former Clinton cabinet member Drug Czar, Dr. Lee P. Brown. Dr. Brown serves on the Carbon Motors Advisory Board, alongside Governor Thomas J. Ridge, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Congressman Lee H. Hamilton, former vice-chair of the 9/11 commission.
“We ask so much more of our law enforcement officers today than we ever did in the past,” said Dr. Brown. “They patrol our neighborhoods and our highways, arrive first on the scene of emergencies, live in their cars during natural disasters, gather and share vital intelligence. Their vehicles are not simply modes of transportation, but serve literally as a traveling office, as a first mode of protection, as a communications center and as a transport for dangerous criminals. This one piece of critical equipment is the command center for every officer on the street, and they deserve a vehicle that will not only help them do their jobs better but also protect them while they are doing it.”
About Carbon Motors Corporation
Carbon Motors Corporation is a homeland security company focused on a highly specific mission: developing, manufacturing, distributing, and servicing the world’s first purpose-built law enforcement patrol vehicle. Learn more at www.carbonmotors.com.
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