BC Men Create Life-Saving App

Through their volunteer work with British Columbia's search and rescue association, BCSARA, Michael Coyle and Tom Zajac have identified a need for a life-saving mobile app. Through experiences with search and rescue missions, the friends realized that there was an opportunity to provide the community with a user-friendly GPS-based web service that would allow users to share their locations with others. Tom and Mike, a software developer, took it upon themselves to see the concept to fruition and developed yourlo.ca/tion.

The website that the duo have designed is exceptionally simple, with no distracting graphics or unnecessary content that could slow down its loading time. Click yourlo.ca/tion’s “Request” tab and you will see a four-field form along with these instructions:

Filling in this form will generate a link that you can send to someone via email, text or social media.

When they click on the link the page will attempt to find their location, and email it to the address you enter here.

The site’s “Locate” page asks permission to locate you, and, if you allow that, it will quickly indicate your coordinates. It then gives you several options for sharing those coordinates with others. You can use email, Facebook, Twitter, or another service to get the word out about where you are.

Perhaps the biggest factor that makes this service invaluable is its ability to locate signals with great accuracy. Previous to yourlo.ca/tion, search and rescue teams might have be able to make contact with the person they were looking for and possibly get a read on their location via GPS; but they wouldn’t know if the specific location that the GPS gave them was accurate to the centimetre or if their target was merely within several kilometres of that place.

Time is of the essence in search and rescue operations, and not knowing how a search should be planned can be deadly to the person who is awaiting rescue. With yourlo.ca/tion, SAR teams are now able to tell if that person is in the exact location GPS gives to them or, for example, simply somewhere in the region where the GPS pin fell.

While yourlo.ca/tion was launched in March of this past year, it has already become a key factor in the saving of lives. Thursday morning, Tri-City News reported the use of yourlo.ca/tion in the rescue of three young hikers who had become trapped on a Coquitlam mountaintop with little equipment to sustain them. Michael Coyle and Tom Zajac are volunteers who have been made heroes; and their province, as well as any person for whom they may search in the future, is lucky to have them.

Csek Creative is at the forefront of digital technology, web development, and online marketing in Kelowna, BC. With over 14 years in the website design and tech industry, Csek Creative is your local leader in digital news.