Calling all cars

MORE THAN 30,000 people die in road accidents within the European Union (EU) each year. At least some of these fatalities could be prevented if the time taken by the emergency services to get to serious incidents could be reduced. One way of doing this would be for accident response centres to acquire accurate basic details on the nature of an incident as soon as it occurs. In a major pan-EU Intelligent Transport Systems initiative aimed at mitigating mortality rates resulting from critical vehicle collisions, the European Commission (EC) has adopted two proposals that will lead to common classes of road vehicles - cars and light vehicles such as vans - having the capacity to instantaneously alert emergency services if involved in a major crash. The eCall (emergency-call) system, set to become part of all eligible vehicles going onto EU roads after 1 October 2015, is designed to automatically call Europe\´s single emergency number -112 in the event of a serious accident, and transmit a stricken vehicle\´s geographical location to them, even if the driver may not be conscious. The EC estimates that as it rolls out eCall could eventually help save up to 2,500 lives a year. The scope of eCall is ambitious both in terms of its implementation and its effects. EC vice-president Siim Kallas, who holds special responsibility for transport issues, believes that eCall has the potential to reduce road deaths "in shortening dramatically the time of intervention of emergency services across the EU. When an accident happens, every minute counts".