FDNY Gets Lost

[Medic One]

Unfortunate situation for all; patient, family and responders

I see a lot of discussion about GPS...I think they are good to have but they can not always be relied upon. They have to be updated like all technology.

We have a policy of NO personal GPS unit in vehicles. GPS units provided from the service are only ones to be used to ensure they are updated (IT dept handles).

Maps are updated at least once a year.

I carry my own hagstrum that I know is new but as with everything roads get added.

This is the problem everyone has when things change or get added.

We mandate the local building, zoning and highway departments to contact us when roads are added & addresses are changed by phone, email and ceritfied mail. It is then the IT departments job to update all computers and mapping programs.

[Kiwiology]

All our vehicles carry a map book and crews often get sent to other areas for cover especially here in Auckland so to send somebody flipping through a map book on the way to a job they have no idea how to get to (or where they are) is a bit pointless I think.

Most units are sent to a neighbouring coverage area but I've heard of West (Waitakere) being sent up to the North Shore (total opposite end of the city) so its really helpful to have the satellite navigation

Note that not all GPS systems are updated either, or you have to pay for updates so it's not 100% accurate 100% of the time!

Personally I use local knowledge to get me in the general area and the GPS makes it exact from there.

[Lone Star]

First off, just because they didn't know where some 'new street' was (or one that sounded like a different one on the other side of the coverage area' isnt 'lost'. LOST means, "We have no friggin' clue where we are, or how to get back to some place we know!"

To be fair, there's no way that one person is going to know each and every street in cities like NYC, Detroit, Atlanta, Pittsburgh. Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New Orleans....you get the idea.

Not all trucks are kept to a specific area either.

Not long ago, a crew was using GPS to transport a patient to some facility, and ended up 250 miles away from their destination because of GPS.

Crews got along just fine with maps LONG before GPS, and as far as I'm concerned, they'll do just fine without it.

[HellsBells]

The bottom line here, I think, is that a service should have a reliable system in place to find an address. Whether it be GPS or map books is irrlevent, I personally like the CAD/GPS system we have, it is a lot easier to use than a map book, but it is computer tecnology, and technology can fail. When that happens, our units have map books as back up.