Brussels, 18/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - A Commission proposal on the eCall emergency system is being prepared so that all vehicles on the road are equipped with this system by 2015. If an accident occurs, the eCall system will be able to call all emergency rescue numbers automatically.
The Fédération internationale des automobilistes (FIA) is following events very attentively. The director general of the FIA in Brussels, Jacob Bangsgaard, commented on the subject last week and said that “if eCall had been set up in 2009 as planned, according to Commission figures, more than 10,000 lives could have been saved on European roads”. Nonetheless, Bangsgaard, is still insisting that eCall and other telematic services are opened up to competition and that “consumers pay for the platform and are subsequently able to decide from whom they wish to purchase their additional services”. On Tuesday 19 March, European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas will present the annual European report on fatal road accidents, as well as a strategy for tacking injuries sustained in road accidents. (MD/transl.fl)