By April 2018 all new car models sold in the EU will be fitted with an automatic emergency call system called ‘eCall’.
Slovenia is the first country in the EU to adopt the ‘eCall’ system and operators at the country’s emergency response centre are already using it. Some estimates suggest that ‘eCall’ could speed up emergency response times by up to 50%.
According to the emergency centre’s head, “eCall is a device inserted into a car, which, in the event of an accident detects the change in speed and whether the air bag has been inflated. It sends data to emergency services, such as the vehicle’s exact location, the direction the car was travelling in, how many passengers are in the car, and what kind of fuel the car runs on.”
It is thought that older vehicles will also be able to use ‘eCall’ as the device should be possible to install at an affordable cost.
The European Parliament says that the device may violate people’s right to privacy, which is the biggest obstacle to the system being made compulsory. However, the manufacturers of ‘eCall’ say that data is only released when a serious accident occurs.
According to figures released by the EU, road fatalities have been falling since 2001, and it is hoped by installing the ‘eCall’ device, together with legislation to implement safer behaviour by motorists, that these figures will further decrease.
