October 16, 2025
The program uses Responder-to-Vehicle technology to alert motorists of responders’ positions directly to their vehicle navigation system when a response vehicle’s emergency lights are activated. This technology increases awareness of roadside hazards and encourages compliance with Move Over, Slow Down laws.
DVRPC’s Digital Alerting Program was recently recognized with two Project of the Year awards, one from the Intelligent Transportation Society of Pennsylvania and the other from the Intelligent Transportation Society of New Jersey at their respective annual meetings.
"This recognition is a huge honor and reflects the hard work of my team and the collaboration with our partners,” said Chris King, manager of the Office of Transportation Operations Management. “Together, we overcame challenges to deliver a program that supports our local emergency responders with life-saving technology.”
DVRPC launched its Digital Alerting Program in early fall 2024. The program uses Responder-to-Vehicle technology to alert motorists of responders’ positions directly to their vehicle navigation system when a response vehicle’s emergency lights are activated. This technology increases awareness of roadside hazards and encourages compliance with Move Over, Slow Down laws, which require motorists to move over or slow down as they travel past active roadway incidents such as a crash, stalled vehicle, or roadway debris.
DVRPC partnered with NEWCOM to install the system and activate HAAS Alerts Safety Cloud services in first responder vehicles. Digital alerting technology differs from all past methods utilized to notify a driver of an approaching hazard by bringing the alert within the vehicle to gain the driver’s attention. As of September 2025, over 150 agencies and 650+ emergency response vehicles are equipped with digital alerting devices. These devices have sent approximately 200,000 real-time alerts a month to drivers through apps like Apple Maps and Waze and vehicle navigation systems—keeping first responders and the traveling public safer every day. Since the program started, it has sent over 2 million alerts.