14 DAY TRIAL // Car crashes are nasty business, especially when they happen on highways or interstate roads and end up involving over a hundred vehicles at once.
When a particularly massive vehicle pileup occurs, it can take days to reopen the blocked street, mostly because the crash investigators have to do a lot of measurements before they're allowed anything else.
Fortunately, the time could be cut from days to hours now that quadcopters are on the case. At least in the state of Michigan.
The Michigan State Police has filed for an authorization to deploy aerial drones that will take photos of crash scenes and give a bird's eye first look for such incidents, as well as other emergencies, urban or otherwise.
Moreover, the institution has already trained its men in how to remotely pilot the Aeryon SkyRanger drone. While it's an expensive piece of work at $158,000 / €140,000, it does pay dividends through its very high resolution and ability to take hundreds of overlapping photos that can be combined via a computer program into a map. A 3D map at that.
Once (or if) the authorization is passed, the Michigan State Police will be the first agency allowed to send remote-controlled aircraft anywhere in the state.
