The evacuation headcount, without a list or calling out names
The muster point is one more geofence. Each watch or phone that enters it is counted automatically, so by the time the last person arrives the headcount is already closed. And nobody has to be spotted as missing by hand: whoever has not arrived appears on screen with their name and the last position where they were seen.
position every 3 s during the evacuationheadcount closed once the last is in
Twenty minutes with a list at the gate
Nobody defends the paper headcount. It is done that way because it is what there is, and because the day it gets tested is a drill in good weather with everyone warned in advance.
The problem isn’t that it takes long; it’s that at the end nobody knows whether the number is true.
The list is from this morning
The contractor who came in at eleven isn’t on it. And whoever clocked in at seven and left at two is still on it, and will show as missing from the headcount all afternoon, and nobody knows whether they have gone or are still inside.
A name is called and the person beside answers
No ill intent: it’s noisy, it’s cold and everyone wants to be done. One extra yes is enough to close a headcount that isn’t true.
Two exits, two lists
Each with its own person in charge and its own sheet. Until someone merges them and cross-checks them by hand, there is no number, only two halves.
And when someone is finally missing, the key detail is too
The list says who hasn’t answered, not where they were when the siren sounded, which is the only thing that helps to go and look for them.
What the regulation takes for granted
Article 20 of Spain’s occupational risk prevention law (Ley 31/1995) requires you to analyse the possible emergency situations, to designate the staff in charge of the evacuation and to check regularly that it works. It doesn’t say how, which is why paper can pass on the desk.
For the activities in Annex I of Spain’s major-hazard rules (Royal Decree 393/2007), which take in much of the chemical industry and sites with a major-accident risk, the drill also has a minimum frequency of once a year.
In practice, checking that it works means measuring how long it takes to know that everyone is accounted for. With a list at the gate, nobody has that number: you know the drill was done, not how long it took to close it.
How it counts itself
There is nothing to clock. The muster point is drawn once on the plan, the same way as any other zone, and from then on the headcount is simply the result of people arriving.
Once the evacuation is declared, each watch starts sending its position every three seconds. The server matches it against the muster point’s geofence, and the counter goes up as people come in. The phone is counted the same way when it enters the geofence, and whoever arrives can also tap “I’ve arrived”.
Each worker is told which way to go
The watch or the phone gives them the route to the muster point: the bearing, the metres still to go and an alert on arrival, and on the phone also on the plan. Nobody has to be tracked down to be told where to go, or be relied on to know by heart which of the two points applies to them.
Whoever is missing appears automatically
With name, contractor and last known position. Nobody has to notice they are missing or remember that there was one more contractor today: if they haven’t entered the zone, they are on the screen.
And you know whether they respond
If the watch detects a fall, it asks. If there is no reply within twenty seconds, it raises the SOS on its own. Not answering is itself a piece of data: the team heads for one specific place instead of searching the plant.
And with the badge, once it’s ready
It’s in development, designed for plants that need exactly this: where each person is, and the headcount done on its own. It doesn’t show the route, because it has no screen, but it is counted on entering the muster point just like a watch.
What this doesn’t do
The system counts whoever carries a watch or a phone with the app. A visitor who comes in for two hours with an escort doesn’t appear in the headcount, and that is still a matter for access control: what this solves is the workforce and the contractors, which is where the volume is and where paper fails.
Nor does it replace the emergency plan or the emergency coordinator. It decides nothing: it gives whoever is deciding the data they don’t have today, while they decide.
And with the watch it is deployed where there is no explosive atmosphere (construction and assembly, workshops, warehouses, roads, open air). In classified areas the app runs on ATEX-certified phones, and the ATEX-certified watch is in development. The device changes, not the system.
See it with your plant in front of you
The mock-up is the control room at work: an evacuation is launched and the counter goes up as people enter the muster point, with a worker’s watch beside it changing at the same time.