In a brazen attempt to “raise awareness” of their presence, ambulances in Oklahoma are now being equipped with some pretty serious sonic firepower to make sure they’re heard over the music played in nearby cars. Using low frequency Howler™ sirens from Whelen Engineering, out of Chester, Connecticut, ambulance drivers can now literally fire sound waves powerful enough for drivers to feel an extrinsic vibration. Of course, our next thought was whether these are available to the general public, as we seem to find ourselves daily in situations that require a Howler.
Here’s a video report from Tulsa’s Fox 23:
Listen to example siren tones using the system. Just make sure the subwoofer is working properly.
More from Tulsa World…
Product page: Howler™ Low Frequency Tone Siren …
(hat tip: Firegeezer)
One Comment
Mark says:
Nov 13, 2008
An interesting note in terms of how this article is written that a lot of people don’t know about — many Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and Paramedics in the United States take great offense to the term “Ambulance Driver”, which is an outdated term used to refer to non-medically trained drivers back before EMS was formalized. If you note the video and Firegeezer’s, you’ll notice that not once is the term “ambulance driver” mentioned. (Amusingly, there is also a comic strip called, “I’m not an ambulance driver!”) Just FYI