Emergency system was offline for most of the year

An important emergency system along Highway 97 was offline for most of this year.

According to West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund, the Emergency Traffic Preemption System spanning the highway through Kelowna and West Kelowna was just recently repaired, after being offline since April.

The system, which is controlled and operated by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, allows emergency vehicles to communicate with traffic lights along the highway.

Brolund explains that radios on emergency vehicles communicate their direction, speed and even whether they intend to turn or go straight, as they approach traffic signals. Traffic lights will then respond to those signals to keep traffic moving.

“The light is either able to stay green, and just kind of keep the traffic flowing, or it’s able to quickly turn green and get traffic out of the way for us,” Brolund says.

When the system is working Brouland says it has a significant impact on how quickly emergency vehicles can make it to a call, especially if they have to drive across town along the highway.

When it was down, it meant a lot more red lights, and slower response times.

“When we arrive at a light that is red, it’s often there’s a line of traffic there already that we have to make our way through. And then we have to stop at that red light, to make sure it’s safe. Then we have to restart and proceed on to the next one, and it does take time,” Brouland says. “And in our business seconds count.”

Brouland says MOTI took the system offline in April for repairs, but he heard little from them after that.

On November 22nd he told West Kelowna’s council that ever since the system was taken offline “staff has requested updates from MOTI on a regular basis, pleading for restoration of this critical system.”

“MOTI has shared that this is a complex system that has wide reaching traffic impacts when it is not working properly,” he continued.

Before the fix, Brouland reported that the last contact staff had had with MOTI was on October 11th, when the ministry said the issue was isolated, but required further investigation, programming and updates in the field to resolve.

There was “no date or assurance of repair provided” at that time, Brouland wrote.

At that meeting, West Kelowna’s council unanimously agreed to write a letter to MOTI asking for the issue to be resolved, but Brouland said the repair finally happened before that letter could be sent.

Two days ago Brouland publically thanked MOTI for fixing the system, saying he understands it is very complex.

“Making it all work isn’t easy. We understand that, but it is critically important to us that we have it working,” he said.