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Joel Katz

New Life Saving 911 Technology Option Launches Today, but Not in New Jersey

Author Joel Katz
A three-alarm fire broke out at Grace Presbyterian Church in Montclair, New Jersey, United States on August 15, 2023.

We are all familiar with 911, the national life-saving service. In a emergency call 911 and speak with an operator. That operator is trained to get you the help you need as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, I’ve never had a reason or occasion where I needed to call the number. Unfortunately, my family and I have accidentally called a couple of times by simply dialing the wrong sequence of numbers. Embarrassing.

The 911 call feature has been around for decades. However, I just learned that there’s another feature being added in some areas that, I think, is so genius, yet so simple. When I heard about it I thought, “Why has it taken so long for this to happen?”

Live Video Streaming

Of course, 911 live video streaming is changing or is going to change 911 for the better. We’ve been utilizing this feature on our phones since the invention of the smartphone. Now it will enhance emergency services throughout the country.

I first saw the story on 6ABC-TV in Philadelphia. They reported that 911 operators in New Castle County, Delaware would now be using this new live video streaming to help residents in emergencies.

They shared that Donald Holden, the acting chief of the county’s emergency communications division said, “Video with 911 allows us to see an emergency through our caller’s eyes.”

How It Works

For example, you call 911 and share the details of your emergency. As usual, the 911 operator gets all the information needed. Then the operator decides whether or not the 911 live video streaming option would help with the emergency.

If so, they text you a link that enables you to share your camera for 911 live video streaming with the 911 operator. You click on the link and they see whatever your camera sees. You do not have to share, it’s your choice. “Once the video stream is terminated by either party, 911 cannot access the video again without a new authorization from the caller.”

Holden said, “This will save lives. Without a doubt, this will save lives.”

There are so many instances where this will save lives that otherwise would be lost. We need to get 911 live video streaming in New Jersey and throughout the country.

 

(Opinion) Here Are The Ten Worst Roads In New Jersey By County.

New Jersey is known for many things; the shore, amusement parks and beaches and unfortunately our drivers and roads. While we may not be as bad as other states, we’re certainly considered to be too fast, impatient and sometimes downright impolite.

Well as you can imagine this can lead to serious accidents across the Garden State, between roads, highways and the parkway it can be a challenge to get from point A to B. So with that in mind, which county has it the worst well you may just be surprised to find that according to a survey done by moneygeek, we here in Middlesex ranked among the worst for road accidents.

So to promote driver safety especially considering summer and spring have some of the highest number of accidents. You should never be distracted while driving it can have serious consequences. So if you want to know which roads are examples of what not to do Here are the ten worst roads in each county that you may want to avoid.

  • 10. Union County (US-1)

    Route 1 also known as the Trenton Freeway is infamous as it runs about 66 miles going through New Jersey and constantly has road work, delays and most importantly accidents along its stretch. Though according to the data the parts that go through Union are the worst. Considering you have exits into Staten Island and the Goethals bridge this is a no brainer.

  • 9. Monmouth County (SR-36)

    As a Monmouth county resident I can confirm wholeheartedly during on Route 36 can be a hit or miss and let me tell you, our batting average is bad. Especially going south you can have accidents, we had a total of 94 fatal accidents in 2020 according to the data, nine of which were along route 36.

  • 8. Atlantic County (US-40)

    Spanning 60 miles heading to Atlantic city is Route 40, this major roadway has been around since the 20’s. Yikes, alongside that on average it had 17 crashes out of the total of 95.

  • 7. Ocean County (GSP-444)

    The Garden State Parkway has got to be one of the best and subsequent worst things to have happened to New Jersey, on one hand it’s great for getting around New Jersey fast and relatively easy. On the other hand sometimes it can turn a 30 minute drive into a few hour long nightmare especially during summer and spring when the weather gets nicer.

  • 6. Gloucester (US-322)

    Entering New Jersey across the Delaware River is US-322, it goes through Gloucester which according to the data was one of the worst counties for distracted driving in 2020. With a total of 105 accidents twenty one of them were on 322.

  • 5. Burlington (US-130)

    While Route 130 may seem not so bad in the eyes of some, It is hands down one of the worst roads in New Jersey when looking at the amount of fatal accidents. They are close to the top in categories like speeding and distracted driving  so as nice of a place as Burlington may be, you may want to be safe and pay close attention to the roads.

  • 4. Bergen (I-95)

    Ah I-95… Now some people like myself rarely have a reason to be on I-95, but there is the occasional day where I find myself merging onto it. It’s that those times my music goes all the way down and I’m super focused on what is going on around me.

  • 3. Essex (SR-21)

    While Essex is lower in terms of drunk driving and speeding, in total they have the third highest in fatal accidents for 2020 at 117. With Route 21 south being a main cause.

  • 2. Camden (US-30)

    Camden though more importantly US-30 is one of the highest counties for distracted driving according to the data. It also had the second highest accidents 123, 15 of which happened on US-30. I don’t find myself on US-30 a lot, and looking at this I don’t plan on doing it in the future either.

  • 1. Middlesex (I-95)

    Coming back to Central Jersey for all the wrong reasons. Though to nobodies shock its I-95 again, but this time going through Middlesex. The big takeaway is that when operating a motor vehicle, be smart don’t rush and most importantly don’t be distracted.

 

 

 

Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.

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