The Safe Freeway Project now available in an App on your Smart Phone
Cape Town, South Africa – April 2017 – The founders of the Safe Free Way project and Safety Information Systems (Pty) LTD (SIS) have developed a Smart Phone application called SOTERIA to handle their broadcasted Safety Messages. Every day and all day long Operators in the Incident Control Centre (ICC) gather Real-time, Relevant and Reliable information on our freeways and broadcast this information to subscribers of the Safe Freeway Project. Up to now the Safe Freeway Project has been using WhatsApp as a method of broadcasting these messages to all of its subscribers.
The WhatsApp platform is great for social media chatting but it was not designed as a Safety Application. SOTERIA was designed from the ground up as a Social Safety App and can do so much more than just distribute Broadcast messages from the Safe Freeway Project. Broadcast messages in SOTERIA are improved as you can now select which Broadcast Channels you want to subscribe to and not have to receive messages about Areas and Freeways that you don’t Travel or are not interested in. You just get Real-time, Relevant and Reliable information from the ICC. New Broadcast channels are added all the time as our user locations increase or as new regional incidents occur line the Zuma protests etc.
Other features on SOTERIA include:
- A fully functional Individual and Group Instant Messaging Chat System
- Watch Over Me (WOM)
- Emergency Notifications and Alerts
All while being connected to our manned ICC with a trained operator ready to help.
WOM is a great feature of SOTERIA. This is a tool that will be used to keep a close eye on your traveling loved ones. When activated WOM will give only previously select contact access to your pinpoint location on a google earth map, enabling you to watch over the travels of those closest to you, ensuring their safety. An individual chat is opened between the one activating WOM and his or her WOM contacts allowing easy communication, location sharing and even picture sharing along this trip. After arriving safely WOM is turned off and all WOM contacts are notified. Watch this space, WOM will become a common household phrase.
We are especially excited about the Alert function in SOTERIA and how it uses your groups to pull your Social contacts together when you need them. SOTERIA has two Alerting functions: I am reporting an incident that I have seen, or I need help. When reporting an incident that you have seen in your neighbourhood or on the freeway, just you and the ICC are involved and once the operator verifies the incident they will activate emergency services and maybe even broadcast it out on a Broadcast Channel. When activating an “I need help” On the Road Alert SOTERIA pulls your previously created On the Road groups together and lets these contacts know that you require assistance. Your Location is given and a temporary group chat is opened to see you through your emergency. The ICC operator keeps a close watch on the incident to make sure your contacts are helping you, if not, the operator will step in and help. This is a powerful tool with many different applications, here is an example of a possible scenario.
Your local Neighbourhood Watch’s sector leader installs SOTERIA on his/her device and creates a group for your suburb. They also add Your NHW control room in that group and any other regular patrollers in and around your area. So now when you activate an “I need Help” Neighbourhood Alert a new temporary group is created with any other groups you might also have in the Neighbourhood category and all patrollers and the entire suburb is notified and can assist in your time of emergency. Imagine a thief trying to escape an area when all the people in that suburb are on high alert and assisting the person in trouble. This is what we mean by Social Safety. Can you think of other scenarios? Maybe a traveling group or a club working on a project together, a school outing etc.
We know that if we stand together we can make our freeways and neighbourhoods safer.
SOTERIA is a tool we are using to create a network of like-minded individuals to unite against criminal activity on the roads and in our neighbourhoods. There is nothing more powerful than a community that stands together for a cause. Always remember, we are more than the criminal!
SOTERIA can be downloaded from the Google Play store and the Apple App store, the first 7 days are free thereafter a small annual fee of R89 per year is required to be part of this network joined by a common app, SOTERIA.
SOTERIA – Connected – Together – Safer
Safety Information Systems (Pty) LTD
Western Cape, South Africa
Neil Slater
www.getSoteria.co.za
www.SafeN2.co.za
Imagine driving somewhere, or finding yourself in a place where you feel a little unsafe and need someone to know where you are, and to watch over you, like a guardian angel until you have arrived at your destination safely. That is what WOM will do for you. Once you activate WOM all your WOM contacts will receive a personal message from you via SOTERIA that you have activated Watch Over Me. They will be able to chat directly with you in SOTERIA as well track your whereabouts. A personal message will be sent to your WOM contacts once you switch WOM off .
Here are some articles where the Safe Freeway Project has featured in the media. Click on the article Description to read the articles.
