Every second matters after a serious crash. Traditional emergency response relies on a witness, occupant, or bystander calling 9-1-1. This process can take several minutes while callers collect details, or it could fail entirely if occupants are incapacitated, the crash site is in a low-travel rural area or poorly lit, wireless coverage is poor, or incorrect information is given.
Automatic Collision Notification (ACN) first became available in the mid-90s, credited
to OnStar for being the adopter.1 Its focus was limited to triggers suggesting a crash and initiating a cellular call for which specialized resources were needed to investigate and engage 9-1-1. Beyond potential automatic triggers, determining the state of the vehicle and occupants was a manual and best-effort task for specialized resources.
Vehicle Emergency Data Set (VEDS) was approved by NENA and APCO in 2017, creating
a standardized vehicle crash dataset. The current version, 3.1, was adopted in 2022.2
VEDS established the dataset that would be conveyed over the next generation of
ACN: Advanced Automatic Collision Notification (AACN). The VEDS 3.1 schema supports 80 data elements with High, Medium and Low priority based on the value of the information to an Emergency Communication Center (ECC).
AACN is a call placed by the vehicle, whether by manual push of a button or automatically triggered by sensors, that conveys advanced data about the vehicle and state, including possible rollover, fire, and occupant state.3 By leveraging VEDS data, AACN provides greater insights into the situation for improved crash-to-care situational awareness. “Advanced” is all about the data available.
Next Generation AACN (NG-AACN) is a substantial step forward.4 With NG-AACN, VEDS data is conveyed natively through a Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) Network. NG9-1-1 networks provide feature-rich, 9-1-1-grade security and resiliency. In addition to this, NG9-1-1 networks can harness the data available during call transport to provide routing to specialized centers in fractions of a second.
Download the full whitepaper to learn more.
