At the press of a button: False alarms overload Bengaluru’s transport safety system | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: A year after vehicle location tracking devices (VLTDs) and emergency buttons were installed in transport vehicles, including school buses and cabs across the state, the system is being overwhelmed: By prank calls!Of the 83,554 emergency alerts received by the transport department’s 24×7 command centre at Shanthinagar since June 2024, only 18 were genuine. The remaining 99.9% were false alarms, triggered out of curiosity, by mistake, or just for fun.“Every time the emergency button is pressed by a passenger in any of the public transport vehicles, including minibuses, an alert pops up on the large monitor of the command centre. Since the details of the vehicle from which the button was pressed are known, our team returns the call at lightning speed, only to understand that the emergency button was pressed out of curiosity or mistakenly,” a transport official said. In fact, the calls at the command centre are constantly monitored by a 30-member trained team. “But these prank calls are turning out to be a major challenge. This high volume of false alerts is putting significant strain on the executives at the centralised command centre as they must flag and attend to every alert as a potential passenger distress situation. It’s only after verifying these alerts that we get to know they are false. There’s no mechanism to filter them as every alert requires it to be treated as an emergency,” explained a senior command centre official.BP Umashankar, additional commissioner of transport, said: “Of the 700 to 800 calls received per day, a majority would be from people pressing the emergency button only to verify if it is functioning. When it comes to genuine alerts, 10-15% are about speeding, rash and negligent driving, while 3-5% are about thefts in buses.” Most of the prank alerts (over 60%) are linked to school and college buses where children deliberately press the button while playing around.“If the problem is genuine and requires intervention, it will be automatically referred to the Emergency Response System Solution on 112, which will, in turn, alert the nearby enforcement team,” explained another official at the command centre.Colours of distressDuring an emergency alert, the contact details given by the vehicle owner pop up on screen with the vehicle’s real-time location. The vehicles are marked with multiple colours depending on their condition. For example, the status of a moving vehicle could be green, yellow or magenta, depending on its speed. “If the vehicle is in distress or has met with an accident, the status will be in orange colour,” an executive at the command centre explained.Good system must not be misused: MinisterGiven the high volume of prank alerts, the transport department is considering a massive outreach programme to create awareness among the public, especially regarding school and college buses. “We appeal to all passengers and the general public not to press the emergency button unnecessarily. This is a fool-proof method provided by the state govt to ensure the safety of passengers and should be used only whenever there is an emergency. If this high volume of false alerts continues, then nobody will take them seriously, and there are chances that genuine alerts will also be ignored. We’re all familiar with the children’s story, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and that shouldn’t happen in real life,” said transport minister Ramalinga Reddy. “Soon, we’ll reach out to all educational institutions to educate their students on the importance of the button and when to press it,” he added.
