STANDARDIZED ICT EQUIPMENT IN EMERGENCY VEHICLES IN LAGOS NIGERIA

ABSTRACT
The rapid growth of population in Lagos, increasing urbanization and industrialization has led to increase in road traffic, industrial accidents and medical emergencies. Lagos state gov-ernment wants to initiate an ICS (Incident Command System) project which will ensure effi-cient and well-coordinated rescue operations in the region.

The primary objective of the Government project is to provide a solution to the loss of lives and properties due to the late response of the emergency services which include police, am-bulance and firefighter. This can be achieved by minimizing the time between an emergency call and the arrival of rescue services on the scene and to create good and functioning com-munications between all rescue services in Lagos state Nigeria.

The purpose of this research work is to study the standard of ICT system use in emergency vehicles in Europe. The aim is to provide useful information and recommendations to the on-going project based on the findings.

This thesis has been done as part of the incident command system project in Lagos, and it focus more on recommending better communication within the onsite personnel and emer-gency operation center. It clearly explained the practical steps to establish good coordination and communication among the rescue service provider. It also recommends the ICT equip-ment that has to be installed in emergency service vehicle for better communication and op-eration.

Keywords:

police, ambulance, fire fighter, rescue services, communications, Lagos, road traf-fic, industrial accidents, medical emergencies, Incident Command System, Emergency opera-tion centre, coordination, ICT equipment.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1          Introduction
            1.1       Geography
            1.2       Population

2          Backgrounds
            2.1       Research Problem
            2.2       Objectives

3          Research Approach and Methods
            3.1       Qualitative Methods
            3.2       Benchmarking
            3.3       Interview

4          Incident Command Systems
            4.1       ICS Element
                        4.1.1    Command
                        4.1.2    Operations
                        4.1.3    Planning
                        4.1.4    Logistics
                        4.1.5    Administration Sections
            4.2       Integrated Communication
            4.3       Communications among Emergency Services
            4.4       Emergency Operation Center
            4.5       Joint Information Center
            4.6       Information Technology

5          Rescue Service Vehicles
            5.1       ICT Equipment in Emergency Vehicles
                        5.1.1    TETRA Radio
5.1.1.1 Individual call
5.1.1.2 Group call
                        5.1.2    Laptops in the Emergency Vehicles
                        5.1.3    Global Positioning System Tracker
                        5.1.4    Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP)
5.1.4.1 Light- Based \ Infrared-Based System
5.1.4.2 Sound-Based System
5.1.4.3 Radio-Based Emitter/Detector Systems
                        5.1.5    Pager
5.1.5.1 Beeper Pager
5.1.5.2 Voice Pager
5.1.5.3 Alphanumeric Pager
5.1.5.4 Two-Way Pager

6          Communication Channel (TETRA network)
            6.1       TETRA Network Switch
            6.2       TETRA Base Station
            6.3       Control room or Dispatchers
            6.4       Direct Mode Operation (DMO)
            6.5       General Packet Radio System
                        6.5.1 General Packet Radio Service Architecture
6.5.1.1 GPRS Mobile Stations
6.5.1.2 GPRS Base Station Subsystem

7          Installation
            7.1       Maintenance
            7.2       Personnel Training

8          Discussion
            8.1       Limitation

9          Conclusion
            9.1       Recommendation
References
Figures


1       Introduction

Having contacted The Infostrides, the company where I did my internship, I got permission to write my thesis on part of an on-going project. My part of the project is to recommend how to standardize the ICT equipment in emergency vehicles. The company is one of the three par-ticipants in this project. The project is one of the many projects currently being undertaken by the Lagos State Government.

Lagos state is the most populous city in Nigeria with the population of 17.5 million as at 2006 according to the Lagos State Government (based on the parallel count conducted by the state during the National Census) (Nigeria Information Guide. 2004).

The rapid growth of population in Lagos, increasing urbanization and industrialization as led to increase in road traffic, industrial accidents and medical emergencies. Therefore, Lagos state government established pre-hospital care which is called Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS) in March 2001 to further strengthen and improve the pre-existing Lagos State Emergency Medical Service (LASEMS).

Despite the effort of the Lagos State Ministry of Health to improve and reduce the time of responding to an emergency situation, there are still some major obstacles. There is no cen-tral emergency line that connects all the various emergency services. Each emergency service has its unique dial code. Therefore, the residents are often confused by the differences be-tween the emergency number of ambulance service from police or fire brigade.

This slow response time coupled with the confusion that most victims faced when deciding the number to call, are the main difficulties that the State Government is interested in solv-ing through the implementation of this project.


According to the National Disaster Management Framework written by the National Emergen-cy Management Agency in 2010, disaster management in Nigeria can be defined as a depart-ment that coordinate and integrate all necessary activities to maintain and improve the ca-pability to prepare for natural or human-induced disasters. Dr. Michael E. Ugbeye (2010) stat-ed that “In Nigeria with a population of over 140 million people, the annual incidence of trauma deaths has been put at 1,320 per 100,000 people. With most deaths occurred within the first hour of injury, often before victim arrives at the hospital”. (Dr. Michael E. Ugbeye 2010) Since the response time and the communication amongst all the emergency depart-ments i.e. paramedics, police and fire – fighter is crucial to victims' survival, the need for an improved and easily accessible ICT system is required. The main purpose of this project is to recommend the European standard ICT system to the Lagos state emergency service centre and vehicles. This will enable specially designated emergency vehicles such as ambulances, fire-trucks or police cars to respond faster to an emergency situation.

1.1    Geography
Lagos state is located in the south-western part of Nigeria and is the smallest State in Nigeria; it occupies an area of 3,345 square kilometers, which 22% of it consists of lagoons and creeks, with 20 local Governments and 37 local council development areas. Lagos shares boundaries with Ogun state and Republic of Benin. Southern part of the state stretches for 180 kilome-ters along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Lagos is the nation’s economic and industrial capi-tal, because the country commercial activities are carried out in the Lagos state and there are over 2,000 industries and two of the nation's largest seaports -crucial and Tin-Can Ports are located in Lagos State (Nigeria Information Guide, n.d).

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Item Type: Project Material  |  Size: 36 pages  |  Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word   Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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