The European Commission (EC) adopted, on 8 September 2011, a Recommendation aiming to ensure that by 2015 vehicles can establish direct calls for emergency services in case of a serious accident.
The eCall system, to be installed in all new car models including passenger vehicles starting in 2015, will automatically call the single European emergency number 112 in case of a serious accident and communicate to the emergency services the location of the vehicle.
In the Recommendation, the EC urges Member States to ensure that mobile network operators improve the infrastructure of networks, so that communications eCall can be transferred efficiently to the emergency services, and treated equality with all other 112 calls.
The EC considers that the eCall system accelerates the arrival of rescue teams by about 40 percent in urban areas and 50 percent in rural areas, thus saving hundreds of lives in Europe every year.
Further information:
- Europe's Information Society - eSafety, ecall http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/ecall/index_en.htm#eCall_Recommendation
- Commission Recommendation C(2011) 6269 final, 08.09.2011 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/esafety/doc/ecall/recomm/recomm.pdf
Related information on ANACOM's website:
- Legislation - updated information https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=1105242
