List Archives

Fri Mar 23 13:26:42 GMT 2007

By Justin Hyde
Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
Copyright 2007 Detroit Free Press
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

WASHINGTON — General Motors Corp.'s OnStar unit will announce today a study
with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find ways to use data
from vehicle accidents to tell paramedics and doctors how badly passengers
might be injured.

Funded by a $250,000 grant from the GM Foundation, the study will attempt to
establish guidelines based on OnStar's measurement of a crash's severity and
perhaps help first responders at accidents.

CDC officials said that data could save lives by pointing out people who are
more seriously injured than they seem, a frequent problem in car crashes,
and sending them to the nearest trauma-capable emergency room.

"In science there aren't many 25% numbers," said Dr. Rick Hunt, director of
the division of injury response at the CDC. "But if you end up in the right
place in the right amount of time, you have a decreased chance of dying by
25%."

Readings like that will require the most advanced form of OnStar's
technology, which can alert advisers when a vehicle gets into any accident
above a certain threshold, even one in which the air bags don't fire. Those
sensors measure the severity of the crash, where the vehicle was struck, if
air bags deployed and whether the vehicle rolled over.

  "What that gives you is 360 degrees of protection around a vehicle," said
Dan McGarry, engineering group manager for OnStar. Noting that previous
systems wouldn't alert in rear-end collisions, "with this system, if there's
a severe rear-end impact, you would trigger a call automatically."

Of OnStar's 4.5 million subscribers, about 1.5 million carry the electronics
needed for advanced crash data, and OnStar officials said every new
OnStar-equipped model will have the technology by 2009. To work, the system
requires a subscription that starts at $16.95 per month.

GM's telematics service already receives 1,100 alerts a month from air bags
deploying in vehicles, and 700 calls a month from the advanced crash
measurement systems. Hunt said the CDC is planning to complete the study by
next year... snip

List Archives

For your convenience, find the Trauma List Archive Below

OnStar, CDC to study crash data: Car's readings may help paramedics