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Article: 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.
- Article from:
- Issues in Science and Technology
- Article date:
- January 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 National Academy of Sciences. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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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, ...