BMWs to Tell Rescuers How Severe an Accident Was

BMW plans to announce one of the most advanced safety technologies in the world that analyzes the severity of an impact and transfers information to rescuers. This way, emergency teams would know what to expect when they're rushing to a crash site, USA Today wrote. BMW plans to implement the new service on all 2009 models except the M3, with the official launch scheduled for this weekend.

Basically, the whole system is based on information collected by crash sensors and relies on details such as deceleration level, impact direction, seatbelt and the number of objects included in the collision, the aforementioned source explained citing sources close to the development of the service. Depending on the severity of the impact, the system automatically calculates the potential injury on a 1-to-100 scale and, in case the rating exceeds 20 points, it informs authorities that the crash should be treated as major.

Besides this, BMW's system is also aimed at helping passive safety devices, such as airbags, which are usually protecting the passengers but may prevent emergency teams from spotting internal injuries. Using information provided by the system, rescuers could faster spot injuries of specific body parts.

"This could save thousands of lives," Jeffrey Augenstein, director of the William Lehman Injury Research Center that worked with BMW, was quoted as saying by USA Today.

General Motors already developed a similar service that is mostly based on the same principle, providing details such as force of the impact and the angle of the collision. The OnStar service automatically collects information in case of an accident and alerts the emergency teams, providing details such as location, severity and whether the airbags deployed or not. OnStar President Chet Huber refused to comment on BMW's service but applauded the German carmaker's efforts in the safety domain.