Brussels, 03/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, further to a high level meeting between representatives of the large companies in the motor industry, of the European Parliament and Member States, the European Commission announced the official launch of an action plan aimed at giving all new vehicles a new automatic emergency dialling system (eCall) from 2009. In the event of collision, the eCall system, which is triggered automatically or manually by someone in the vehicle, will call the emergency services at a “Public Service Answering Point” (PSAP) and report the exact location of the accident. Given the speed and effectiveness of the system, emergency services will gain precious time in locating and reaching the scene of the accident, thus saving many lives (so far 2,000 annually according to the results of recent studies) and providing more effective medical care for the injured.
The action plan targets: - 2005 for an agreement on eCall standardisation and specifications; - 2006 for full scale field tests; - and 2009 for introducing eCall technology in all new vehicles. The system will be implemented European-wide within the framework of the eSafety initiative. A progress report and specific measures for accelerating deployment of eSafety technology will be presented in a communication in March 2005, the Commission states.
On 27 August 2004, the Commission had signed a protocol agreement with the representatives of ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers' Association) and ERTICO (Intelligence Transport Systems Europe) in order to implement eCall. In the meantime, the protocol has gathered many signatures from the business world and from Member States in addition to the European Commission. Commissioner Viviane Reding said the advanced information and communication technologies provide great possibilities for improving road safety in Europe. Like the anti-collision radar, the automatic emergency call is an area in which consensus at EU level can contribute to lifting technological and commercial barriers to the deployment in Europe of road safety systems that really do save lives, she said.