Mike Beeler installs a "TEAS" safety locator sign in Dallas County.

PERRY, Iowa, May 15, 2007 – A new set of safety signs is being placed along the Raccoon River Valley Trail so that trail users will be able to tell “911″ emergency dispatchers exactly where they are along the trail.

The Dallas County Conservation Board, along with other agencies in Dallas County and surrounding counties, has installed what is called the “Trail Emergency Access System” (TEAS). This is based on the same idea of the 911 emergency system used for identifying an address for a specific location. The major difference is that with TEAS, the address is a specific reference point located on a recreational trail.

The system became operational on the Dallas County portion of the RRVT on May 11. Similar locator signs and emergency services coordination will eventually be put in place on the RRVT in Guthrie and Greene Counties, too. A similar emergency system is now in operation on the recreation trails in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls metro area, but the RRVT will be the first multi-county trail in the state to have the system when it is completed here.

“As trails in Dallas County continue to expand, connect with other counties, or branch out and become a trail with a different name, it becomes more difficult for the trail user to know where exactly they are,” said Mike Wallace, the Dallas County Conservation director and a member of the board of directors of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association. “It may even be hard to determine or remember what the name is of the trail that they are on. By using the TEAS numbering system, those factors are no longer a major concern.”

With a TEAS numbering system, the actual reference point number that the trail user sees does not mean much to that user. However, the number does mean something to law enforcement and EMS personnel because it will be a reference point number that is listed on a data base with the 911 dispatch department that will give specific and detailed directions on how to get to that point in the trail.

In Dallas County the trail reference number includes the county number, trail name and the number of logistical points established. The data base will contain a detailed GPS coordinate number and the specific landmark directions for EMS personnel to find the location. The trail posts or markers with the TEAS number on it will be located approximately every half mile and at any logical point on the trails that the trail managers feel would be appropriate. These posts are not intended to provide distance markers for trail users, but rather emergency access reference points for those that need assistance when calling 911.

“When someone is in need of ‘Emergency’ help, they can call 911 and give the dispatch center the ID number on the post that they are near,” Wallace explained. “The dispatcher then puts the number into the computer and the database provides specific directions on how to get to that location. This system will work well when crossing county lines. There will be no duplication of the number system, even though the trail name may be the same, because of the county number there will not be a duplicate”.

The key to the system is to make it easy for the user to read and repeat the number in a cell phone call.

Wallace said funding for the Dallas County TEAS signage came from the county’s Emergency 911 Board.

Article Published: 05-15-2007