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BY 2018, ALL new cars in Europe will have to be fitted with a system that automatically rings emergency services in the event of a crash.
The European Parliament has voted for the automatic dial-up system so emergency workers can get to crash sites as swiftly as possible.
Last year, 25,700 people died on EU roads and MEPs believe this technology could reduce the death toll by 10%.
“The European Parliament has repeatedly stressed that reducing deaths and the severity of injuries on the roads is its priority,” said socialist MEP Olga Sehnalova, lead negotiator of the legislation.
Dubbed eCall, Sehnalova said it would be “a public service, free of charge for all citizens, irrespective of the type of vehicle or its purchase price.”
The European Commission says the automatic eCall system could speed up emergency response by 40% in built-up areas and 50% in the countryside — saving up to 2,500 lives a year.
The eCall system automatically calls 112, Europe’s single emergency number, in the event of a serious crash, communicating the vehicle’s location, even if the driver is unconscious or unable to make a call.
The idea was introduced in 2012 but has been held up due to concerns over privacy.
Erik Jonnaert, head of the European auto-maker industry group ACEA welcomed the law.
“The industry feels that the final text strikes a good balance between saving lives and protecting data,” he said.
In the new regulation, all new models of passenger cars and light utility vehicles will be fitted with 112 eCall and infrastructure put in place to ensure handling of the calls at response centres across the European Union.
The number could also be triggered manually by a driver in trouble, a passenger or even a witness by pushing a button in the car.
Addressing concerns over privacy, MEPs strengthened the draft law’s data protection clause to block the tracking of vehicles before an accident occurs.
Additionally, the automatic call would give the emergency services only basic data, such as the type of vehicle, the exact location and the number of passengers.
The Commission has tried for several years to introduce the system, estimated to cost around €100 per new car.
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How does the auto call get triggered? You don’t want the emergency services hauled out to every piddling fender bender.
Linked to airbags & other sensor that only trigger eCall when preconfigured thresholds warrant it.
Airbags can go pop at a 5 km/hr impact. Which means little or no injury in most cases. Emergency services gonna help ya pop it back in?
Airbags deploy when there’s a force to hurt the driver. And some serious roll overs airbags do not deploy so I’m sure there’s 100 different things wired into these cars.
Considering that An Garda Siochana leave the vast majority of road accidents to civil remedy and don’t even attend the scene, I wonder what will happen then? There’s no point in having every tip auto dialling the Gardai, they’ve enough to do.
Also, Gardai only investigate road traffic collisions where there is injury. Material damage accidents are not investigated at all. Never have been. Where there’s only material damage its just a case of swap details.
We’re beginning to live in more of a nanny comune each day. The EU is far to omniscient these days for my liking.
So I guess that if your ever involved in a car accident you won’t be needing a ambulance?
Good luck to you.
I thinks it’s a great idea
It is indeed a great idea but will be years before it is widespread.
We are soon to get a dumb non-gps embedded postcode for dwellings only when an alternative GPS embedded postcode which can help in road traffic accidents was not only not considered but actively denied the opportunity to tender.
So we could have an eCall type app on every smartphone in the country in a month not decades but Pat Rabbitte and Alex White see public safety as collateral damage in the fight for votes.
A miniscule amount of cars will have the technology but this was put forward as a reason not to have a widespread GPS embedded postcode.
Already in some cars
Yes, BMW for one. Know someone who was involved in a crash, next thing they knew the emergency services were talking to them. I probably have this arse about face but I think if you have the phone sync’d into the car, it uses the phone to dial the ES, on this particular model of a BMW.
Some BMW cars are equipped with their own SIM card from the factory so it doesn’t depend on a phone being in the car.
In the event of a collision the car automatically calls BMW and they can alert emergency services. The car can also transmit its gps coordinates and in the event of an accident can transmit where and how hard the car has been hit.
And yes I’m a car need lol
Yes I have a new BMW and this is already in mine. Also has a manual button to call emergency services and sends the location of the car along with the number of passengers in the car by using pressure sensors in each seat. Doesn’t rely on my mobile. The car has its own integrated phone/sim card.
Nerd
Cheers for the clarification, knew I’d get it mixed up somehow. What do you expect when I drive a Ford!
Yes my new BMW has this in it. The car calls emergency services automatically and there is a button to call them manually if you need to. It transmits the cars position, the number of passengers in the car by way of sensors on each seat and the extent of damage to the car and related diagnostic info. It doesn’t rely on your own phone either. The car has its own integrated sim card so it always works.
Didn’t mean to post the same thing twice there. I thought that the first one hadn’t gone through as I’d only signed up.
No Lorraine I think if the BMW is involved in a serious smash it triggers an alert in Germany and they pinpoint the geographics and call emergency services.
Been available in the states for years.
I have this in a ford transit . I do be shitting myself about setting it off and noting wrong with me . If they put them into renaults they’ll be going off full time like the rest of there electrics
Might help identify hit and run drivers
Excellent idea especially on our isolated rural lanes.
The ones where you can’t get a phone signal for love nor money ? How will that work?
That Sierra looks like it got a right rap
It’s a clever idea tracking introduced 18 years ago
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