Red lights won’t be slowing down Plainfield Township’s fire crews racing to emergency calls.
A new traffic signal preemption system launched along the Plainfield Avenue corridor automatically cycles lights to green as fire apparatus approach, creating safer intersections while shaving precious seconds off response times. The technology represents a quiet revolution in emergency response – one that most drivers will never notice until they’re sitting at a red light that suddenly changes to help a fire truck pass through.
“It’s all about innovation,” says Plainfield Township Fire Chief Kyle Svoboda, whose department has installed the GPS-based Opticom system on their apparatus. “We talk about responding to emergencies down roads – it comes with inherent danger. It’s not necessarily a danger just to our members. It’s also a danger to the community as well.”…