Emergency distress call system for automobiles in Lagos state, Nigeria

Abstract

Distress calls are made whenever a road mishap occurs. But regrettably, every year more and more Nigerians die as a result of failure of emergency response system in coming to the aid of victims of road accidents on time. Although there are flashes of intervention and reform initiatives at both federal and state levels, these efforts are often under resourced, uncoordinated, too dispersed and not sustained long enough to provide sufficient care for victims. The detection of the location of the scenes of road mishaps must also be accurate and precise so that the ambulances awaiting dispatch message will receive the correct information. This research work incorporates information and communications technology capabilities to transportation and the medical care system in order to save lives, reduce mortality rates and increase the efficiency of emergency response with respect to situations requiring urgent medical attention. This is achieved with the design of an interface, using PHP that receives a distress signal sent via SMS and indicates the location of the accident by means of Google Maps. The use of Google Maps ensures the accuracy of the geographical location of the accident and this consequently assists the paramedics in getting to the accident victims on time, thereby saving lives.

Keywords: : Distress call, road mishap, SMS, LASAMBUS.