Cobb County is expanding its Emergency Locator Marker program to the Silver Comet Trail. Cobb is the first county in Georgia to deploy the trail markers that are designed to direct rescuers quicker to 911 calls from a trail. The SCT project is underway now, but the markers are coming to more trails in 2019.

“We have signs that are going up on all trails that are approximately a quarter-mile apart… There is an eight-digit number and when you call 911 and give that location, it doesn’t just show up as a place on a trail, it actually shows up like a home address or business address and it puts it on the responder’s map on a computer,” says Cobb County Police Park Ranger Sgt. Dave Ablashi. “That enables the first responder not only to know exactly where to go on the road, but they can find it and look up the address and drive right to it.”

Cobb has more than 150 miles of trails and often when people need help they have no idea where they are.

“When you see that marker, even if it’s not you or somebody comes up on you and they’re able to get to that marker, it’s going to save so much time and you’ll have so much confidence in your experience because the police will be there so much faster,” says EMA Director Cassie Mazloom.

Crews will continue installing these markers across Cobb to point rescuers to the nearest trail access point.

“It’s going to enhance the response time for Fire, Police Department, and the ambulance service dramatically. We’re going to find hurt people who need help a lot faster now,” says Sgt. Ablashi.

“We’ve had officers and firefighters that have had to walk up to two miles carrying someone on a stretcher and that was a wake-up call for us that this was desperately needed,” says Mazloom.