More and more requests for help via eCall
Last year, many more cars called the emergency services themselves after an accident than a year earlier. The so-called ‘eCall’ accounted for more than 18,000 reports.
Those who get into trouble with a modern car often do not even have to call the emergency services themselves. With the eCall, mandatory in new cars since April 2018, a car can call 112 itself if something goes wrong. The car then calls the emergency services if an accident has occurred. Last year, that happened no less than 18,240 times, according to BNR from figures from the National Police. In 2021 there were still 13,183 automatic emergency notifications via eCall. Last year, more than 38 percent more such reports were received.
eCall itself informs the 112 operator where the car is located, in which direction the vehicle is facing, how many people are in the car and also what fuel the car uses (or whether it is an electric car). The latter is especially essential for the fire service. eCall activates automatically if the vehicle concludes that a serious accident has occurred, for example if the airbags have been deployed. It is also possible to activate eCall yourself with the push of a button. Anyone who has a car from April 2018 or later has the system on board by definition, but some manufacturers introduced it in their models earlier. According to previous estimates, eCall could reduce the response time of emergency services by up to 50 percent in rural areas and by 40 percent in urban areas.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl