As discussed in the last STC meeting, for safety reasons a system was set-up to monitor travel of the staff to and from the observatory. This is a web page where people can register when they leave either from the office or the observatory with an estimate of the time before arrival. Depending on how much time has elapsed, emails will be send as reminder to the person to switch off the system, followed by warning messages to an extended list of people requesting to check the whereabouts of the person with some info (which car and number plate, etc) and a list of phone numbers to contact. Especially during the bad weather periods during the winter this system turned out to be very useful and easy to use.
We also have looked at systems to track the location of the cars using the mobile phones. However, the main problem is the lack of coverage over a large part of the road. Recently an improved system for the reception of radio signals has been installed and the current plan is to equip all cars with radios so they can be contacted at all times.
Safety when traveling from or to the observatory was also discussed extensively in the CCI Observatory Sub-Commission meeting. One issue is that the roads to the observatory are often officially closed when they are in principle passable and can be used by the staff from the observatories, where the question arises what the legal implications are if one does drive up and has an accident. This is still not properly defined..
The automatic reminder that is send out to observers one month before their observing run was also updated to highlight safety issues when traveling to and from the mountain and when working at the telescope.