OnStar
Subscribers To Be "Good Samaritans" in Search for
Missing Children
April
21, 2004 -- General
Motors' subsidiary OnStar has joined with the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children (NCMEC) in its efforts to help find missing children. OnStar's
Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite and wireless technologies and the expertise
of its call center advisors will now serve as the communications link for its
2.5 million subscribers in their efforts to help bring missing children home safely. An
OnStar subscriber who wants to report emergency information related to an AMBER
Alert or a lost child can press the red OnStar emergency button in his or her
vehicle. Immediately, the subscriber will be connected with an OnStar emergency
services advisor who will expedite the call to a 911 dispatcher.
| "It
is important to keep in mind that just one lead can result in
finding a child."
| This
unique collaboration marks the first time that an in-vehicle
safety communications
system using GPS satellite technology and private citizens have teamed up to help
NCMEC locate missing children. OnStar's growing subscriber network represents
the nation's largest, most technologically advanced fleet of good Samaritans.
GM's OnStar, with call centers staffed 24 hours, 365 days a year, is available
to subscribers and the nation's 6,000 emergency 911 centers in all 50 states and
every Canadian province. "Our
partnership with OnStar has just added another 2.5 million sets of watchful eyes
on the road in the nation's ongoing efforts to help find missing children,"
said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. The
OnStar-NCMEC alliance will become a key component of OnStar's good Samaritan program,
which encourages subscribers to use the OnStar system to make calls on behalf
of others in need. All OnStar good Samaritan calls are strictly voluntary, and
emergency advisors will not encourage subscribers to endanger themselves by following
or confronting a suspect vehicle. Each
month, OnStar receives about 8,000 emergency assistance calls, which include 3,000
good Samaritan calls for medical emergencies and crashes involving other motorists.
These good Samaritan calls also include AMBER Alerts and calls for missing children. "Clearly,
this initiative is a natural extension of OnStar's
industry-leading in-vehicle
safety and security services," said OnStar President Chet Huber. "When
a child is missing, every second counts to increase the likelihood of a safe return.
The ability to quickly share critical information with public safety officials
can be the difference between a child found and a tragedy." (CONTINUE...)
| 