Telephone notification

A national emergency number speeds up the process and guarantees that all relevant agencies are warned and involved. In high-income countries, access to the emergency medical system is almost always made by telephone, but the coverage and reliability of the telephone link varies between countries. The growth in the use of mobile telephones is having a helpful effect on crash notification [48] .

The EU 112 emergency notification number. For the European Union, 112 is the emergency telephone number which allows European citizens in distress to contact the emergency services in all Member States. It was established by Council Decision of 29 July 1991 and reinforced through the Directive 98/10/EC and now to be found in the Universal Service Directive. According to the European Commission it has now been implemented in all EU countries, although the number is little known by EU citizens according to European Commission monitoring. No information is available about the time taken to answer this emergency call number and no EU standard exists for call receipt.