VIDEO: The St. Lucie County Fire District is working with county leaders to implement a new traffic system that will help improve their response times during service calls.
"Our average response time’s 3 to 6 minutes within the county here. Shaving a minute and a half off of that is huge," Deputy Chief Paul Langel of St. Lucie County Fire District told WPBF 25 News. With these traffic pre-emption devices, the system will turn the traffic lights green at intersections to help clear the paths.
"Since we do average about six intersections per response, this system will shave off about 10 to 12 seconds per intersection," Langel said.
Fire crews have installed 14 of these systems so far in their front-line vehicles, and plan to have 84 of them equipped by the end of the calendar year. County leaders plan to install the system in 60 intersections.