What are Digital Alerts?

Digital alerts are often alarm activations that are triggered by security solutions, personal safety, and other public safety solutions that may not yet have risen to the level of a 911 call. Digital alerts are displayed within RapidSOS Portal at your ECC, and within IamResponding for those in the field.

Does not require a call to 911
Fully digital notifications, direct feed to ECC & field responders
Pre-dispatch notification
Additional data enhances situational awareness

Train Incident Digital Alerts

Norfolk Southern train derailment alerts are one type of Digital Alert, and the first that is being launched in IamResponding.

When a Norfolk Southern train incident has occurred, the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) with jurisdiction over the derailment location will automatically be notified via an Alert inside their RapidSOS Portal/Premium system.
Simultaneously, an Alert will be created within IamResponding, sending a pre-alert notification to field responders, prior to the incident being dispatched.
Pre-alert notifications will be sent to every IamResponding agency within a 40 mile radius of the train derailment.

** Pre-Alert notifications are not sent from your ECC, and do not signify that your agency has been dispatched to an incident. Please do not respond to an incident unless your agency has been dispatched in accordance with your local policies & procedures.

Digital Alerts & IamResponding

New Digital Alert Features within IaR

With the addition of Train Derailment Digital Alerts within IamResponding, the new features below will be available to users within their IamResponding system:

Pre-Alert Notifications
Train Derailment Icon
Train Derailment Map Marker
Digital Alerts Incident List
Train Derailment Event Card
Digital Alerts Subscription

Pre-Alert Notifications

When a Norfolk Southern train derailment has occurred, IamResponding users will receive a “Pre-Alert” notification indicating the alert type (Train Derailment) as well as other pertinent information regarding the event, including:

Location of the Event
- Street address, lat/long, what3words
Train Information
- ID
- Number of Railcars
- Number of Hazardous Cars
- Hazardous Materials on Board
- Length
- Number of Loaded/Empty Railcars

Train Derailment Icon

When there is an active train derailment event, the new train derailment icon will be displayed within IamResponding. Clicking on the icon will open the train derailment event card, providing additional event information.

Maps
- Will display the location of the train derailment event, as provided by Norfolk Southern.
CAD Incident Details Card
- Train derailment icon will display any time a derailment plots within 40 miles of the CAD incident location
- Clicking on the icon will display additional data

Train Derailment Event Card

The train derailment event card within IamResponding will display:

Pre-Alert Type (Train Derailment)
Location of the Event
- A train derailment marker will display on the map
- Street address, lat/long, w3w
Train Information
- ID
- Speed
- Number of Hazardous Railcars
- Length
- Number of Loaded/Empty Railcars
Hazardous Materials Information with links to the relevant Emergency Response Guide
Other Car Information

Digital Alerts Events List

Within the incidents list, access the new “Digital Alerts” tab, where users can view previous digital alerts that have been sent to your IamResponding system.

Expand events and search for events by keyword.

Digital Alerts Reports

Within the administrative functions page of the IaR website, there is a new report for “Digital Alerts”.

Users can specify the digital alert event type that they would like to view historical data for, and can run a report to see a list of previous digital alerts sent to their IaR system for a specified time period.

Subscribing to Digital Alerts

Admins are able to subscribe multiple members to Digital Alerts at once via the IamResponding website:

On the Administrative Functions Page, hover over “Manage Members” and select “Manage Incident Subscriptions”
Subscribe individual or multiple members to Digital Alert types here. Remember that these are different than CAD alerts, which are enabled separately

Individual users can also manage Digital Alert subscriptions on the IamResponding website or within their IamResponding mobile apps

On the Website:

Users will see a new section in their member profile page labeled as “Digital Alerts Type,” where they can subscribe to any available Digital Alert types
App push notifications are not an available selection on this page, but are automatically enabled for any Digital Alert type the user subscribes to

In the Mobile Apps:

In the IaR app Settings page, select “User Profile & Credentials” and then select “Digital Alerts Information.” Under “Send Me These Digital Alerts” select “Rail Emergency-Norfolk Southern”
Within the IaR app main Settings page, under “Digital Alert Settings,” turn Notifications on and select a ringtone (this should default to on after the first step above)

Note: All members do not need access to Train Derailment alerts. We suggest only subscribing Chiefs, Officers and others with a specific need to this type of alert