After a fatal deer hunting accident last November, Sevier County, Ark., emergency service personnel discovered GPS coordinates are more accurate than cellphone triangulation, De Queen, Ark., Fire Chief Dennis Pruitt said.
After researching the GPS devices, nine fire departments will receive anonymous donations to install the GPS devices on fire department vehicles. Each GPS device costs about $200 each.
The emergency crews were trying to tell medical personnel the isolated location of the victim and were using cellphones.
If a cellphone signal hits a tower, the information about the location can be off as much as 5 miles, Pruitt said.
With GPS devices, the response time can also be reduced, he said.
"This can rectify the situation and we can get the helicopter where it needs to be. No one did anything wrong," Pruitt said.
"If the signal comes from a satellite, it's more accurate and we can get the helicopter to within a few hundred yards.
Mike Hambrecht, pilot supervisor at the Sevier County Air Evac, said the GPS devices will help save valuable time in the case of an emergency, according to a news release.
"This is another positive result that came out of a tragic event," Hambrecht said.