GM’s OnStar Partners With Emergency Responders
March 21, 2007

Auto companies and medial emergency services have long envisioned a day when every motor vehicle would be equipped with devices that could immediately and automatically alert medical services of an accident so that injured victims could receive quick responses and appropriate care.

To that end, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the CDC Foundation with General Motors announced a partnership today whereby crash data from GM vehicles equipped with GM's OnStar communications system will be studied. From those studies, procedures to help emergency medical responders better and more quickly determine if a motorist needs care at a trauma center after a vehicle crash will be developed.

The CDC will convene a panel of more than 20 emergency medical physicians, trauma surgeons, public safety and vehicle safety experts to review real-time crash data from OnStar and similar systems from other companies to help improve emergency transport and treatment of crash victims. OnStar and the GM Foundation will provide a $250,000 grant to the CDC Foundation.

The newest version of OnStar can send crash data to an OnStar advisor if the vehicle is involved in a moderate or severe front, rear or side-impact crash. Depending on the vehicle, the data can include crash severity information, along with data on the direction of the impact, airbag deployment, multiple impacts and a rollover. Advisors can relay this information to emergency dispatchers, helping them to quickly determine the appropriate combination of emergency personnel, equipment and medical facilities needed.

Medical experts agree time is of the essence in emergencies. The sooner they have information and the more details they have on the way to a crash, the better care, such as transfer to a trauma center, they can provide. The CDC’s research shows care at a trauma center lowers the risk of death by 25 percent for severely injured patients compared with treatment received at a hospital without trauma care services.

Data from vehicle telematics systems may prove especially important in rural or isolated areas where there may not be a passerby to report a crash and resources of a trauma center are too far away to treat the kind of injuries sustained in severe crashes. About 60 percent of the nation's fatalities are in rural areas, even though rural areas account for only 20 percent of total annual crashes.

OnStar systems capable of sending crash information went on the market in several 2004 GM models. It is in many 2007 models and will be in all models by 2009, GM said.

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