A phone app has helped find an injured snowmobiler on Lake Couchiching.
Friday just before 5 pm, OPP responded to a call about an injured sledder on the lake who’d been involved in a collision.
The driver wasn’t able to tell them exactly where he was.
Staff at the OPP’s communications headquarters were then able to employ the What3Words app by texting a link to the app to the driver who then used it to pinpoint his location which was encoded by the app into a unique set of three words.
Police were then able to find the driver and take them to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The use of What3Words app – a geocode mapping system – is an example of how the OPP is modernizing its police service and using tech to enhance public safety and support successful outcomes by decreasing response times to high priority calls in which the caller doesn’t know their exact location.
#OrilliaOPP responded to a snowmobile collision where the injured driver could not say exactly where he was on Lake Couchiching. #OPP utilized the @what3words app to pinpoint the driver's location and assist with his rescue. #NoIceIsSafeIce ^td pic.twitter.com/awyFQZJK7h
— OPP Central Region (@OPP_CR) January 11, 2021
