(DOWNLOAD) "Improving Public Safety Communications: Today's System Puts the Lives of First Responders and the Public at Risk. What's Needed Is a Nationwide Broadband Network, And Policymakers Now Have a Perfect Opportunity to Act." by Issues in Science and Technology # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Improving Public Safety Communications: Today's System Puts the Lives of First Responders and the Public at Risk. What's Needed Is a Nationwide Broadband Network, And Policymakers Now Have a Perfect Opportunity to Act.
- Author : Issues in Science and Technology
- Release Date : January 01, 2007
- Genre: Engineering,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 437 KB
Description
At 9:59 a.m. on September 11, 2001, the first of many evacuation orders was transmitted to police and firefighters in the World Trade Center's North Tower. Police heard the order, and most left safely. But firefighters could not receive the order on their communications equipment--even as people watching television at home knew of the tragedy unfolding. When the tower fell 29 minutes after the first evacuation order, 121 firefighters were still inside. None survived. Although the number of lives lost on 9/11 was especially great, there is nothing unusual about loss of life due to failures in the communications systems used by first responders: firefighters, police, paramedics, and members of the National Guard. Such failures occur across the country during large disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, and during emergencies too small to make the news, such as police car chases and burning houses. When public safety communications systems do not work, the lives of first responders and the citizens they protect are at risk.