Trials on to turn traffic lights green for emergency vehicles

SINGAPORE — Trials to turn traffic lights in favour of emergency vehicles are ongoing at a “handful” of traffic intersections in Yishun, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said on Wednesday (May 5)..

As they approach traffic lights, emergency vehicles will be able to transmit a wireless signal to turn the light green. The system is being developed by the SCDF, together with the Land Transport Authority and ST Engineering.

In another pilot launching later this year, the SCDF will be working with the Singapore Management University to use big data. SCDF commissioner Eric Yap said: “Data science and analytics will feature strongly in our transformation ... We are developing a (system that) will analyse data from multiple sources, including call patterns based on time of day, live traffic ... to recommend optimal resources deployment ... to reduce response time to incidents.”

At their workplan seminar on Wednesday, the SCDF unveiled two 20m-long Rapid Response Fire Vessels, designed entirely by SCDF Marine Command. The vessels, docked at marine fire stations in West Coast and Brani, have water monitors capable of discharging 5,000 litres of water each minute, and thermal imaging features to detect casualties out at sea even at night.

In terms of infrastructure, more marine fire facilities will be built. A Marine Fire Station in Loyang will be opened by the middle of the year, while a Marine Outpost will start operations at the upcoming Punggol Fire Station in 2020. Jurong Fire Station will be relocated to Jurong West Avenue 2 in “a few months’ time”, and construction of the Kallang Fire Station-Home Team Joint Facility for both the SCDF and the Singapore Police Force will start in the middle of this year.

In other updates, the Civil Defence Academy will start revamping its external training area over the next three to four years. Once completed, officers will be able to train using multi-dimensional simulators depicting realistic scenarios such as underground road tunnels and industrial sites.

A national emergency medical services (EMS) training centre and a responders’ performance centre will be based in the academy — the first centre is to provide scenario-based training, among other things, for emergency medical technicians and paramedics; and the second is to conduct scientific studies.

Manpower-wise, a unified rank structure will be set up for regular uniformed officers from this July. This would give officers who have demonstrated good performance and potential “faster career progression opportunities”, Commissioner Yap said.

Expert career tracks for specialists and a learning and development subsidy are in the pipeline, and more details would be announced soon for officers, he added.

On Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said national servicemen in the SCDF would see their roles enhanced, and be deployed to more frontline and leadership positions. For instance, full-time national servicemen in the special rescue unit will go beyond providing support for mass casualty situations to respond to a wider range of incidents, including vegetation fires and oil-tank fires.