Okla. ambulances debut sirens that you can feel

[Roon]

TULSA, Okla. - You're in the car and you've got the radio cranked up insanely loud. Chances are, you're not going to hear that ambulance siren wailing behind you.

Soon, even if you can't hear it, you'll be able to feel when an emergency vehicle is coming.

Oklahoma's largest ambulance company will become the first ambulance service in the nation to outfit its entire fleet with new Howler sirens, designed to emit low-frequency tones that penetrate objects within 200 feet — such as cars — to alert drivers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27676244/

[Lerkfish]

1. this is excellent for the deaf drivers

had a good friend and coworker who was deaf, when I rode with him in the car, he had to keep an extra eye out for lights.

this invention will make all things safer for the deaf community.

[Roon]

3. I am very hard of hearing

I won't cross a street unless I have visual cues. I almost got creamed when I was a kid because I didn't hear a car coming.

It's kind of frustrating because my buddies that also travel by bus insist on jaywalking and I just won't do it.

[Lars39]

2. And if you live by the ambulance station?

[backscatter712]

4. I live just down the street from a fire station.

Yeah, these sirens sound like they're gonna be obnoxious.

I understand that for public safety's sake, emergency vehicles have to make loud noises in order to move through traffic at a decent speed to a fire or an injury-accident.

But damn, now I get to look forward to a low-level earthquake every time the fire trucks zoom past my apartment building on top of the siren noise. Joy...

[LeftyMom]

9. Yeah, that'll suck.

I live right next to a hospital.

[Lance_Boyle]

5. 200 feet? Are they restricted from using these in residential areas?

I mean really. Ambulances have audible and visual alerts systems. In the event an ambulance driver encounters another driver clueless enough to miss both of those, they can pass the vehicle, or bump it. Room shaking sirens are a poor solution in search of a very infrequent problem.

[RC]

6. Don't they already have that installed in every immature teenagers cars already?

You can hear them literally a mile away.
First ambulances, then police and fire trucks will have this annoying shit. You know someone will come out with a CD of this sound (noise) for playing in the juvenile's ghetto blasters installed in their cars.
The real problem is you cannot tell from which direction this low bass is coming from.

Let's not do this.

[LeftinOH]

10. Yes- these kinds of noisemakers are already on the streets; I swear I

can feel that noise in the fillings of my teeth.

[pirate_satellite]

11. Good point

This'll almost certainly be replicated by pranksters with sub-woofers in the trunk. Seems like a bad idea all the way around. The lack of directionality is also a serious problem.

[Lex]

7. Wow--could it mess with people's pacemakers?

Sounds a bit creepy.

[MazeRat7]

8. Humm would a big sub-wolfer and the Ghost Busters theme achieve about the same results..

Be a cooler at least....

Peace,
MZr7