EC Plans to Speed Up Implementation of eCall Car Safety System

August 21, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS

The eCall system automatically dials 112, Europe's single emergency number when a car has a serious accident, and sends its location to the nearest emergency service. This can halve emergency response times, reduce severity of injuries and save the lives of people who do not know or cannot say where they are.

Triggered automatically if passengers cannot do so, eCall could save up to 2,500 lives per year in the European Union (EU) when fully deployed and reduce the severity of injuries by 10 to 15%.

The measures proposed by the EC would ensure that eCall works in all EU countries and in cars of all brands and countries of origin. For now, the deployment of eCall by public authorities, car companies and mobile phone operators is voluntary, and the system is not operational in any EU country.

The EC warned that if no significant progress is made in rolling out the eCall system by the end of 2009, it could propose regulatory measures to make this life-saving technology available all over Europe as soon as possible.

Implementing eCall needs the full collaboration of the car and telecoms industries, as well as national administrations in all EU countries, who must ensure that their emergency services are equipped to handle eCalls.

Although the technology is ready and common EU-wide standards have been agreed upon by industry, six EU countries (Denmark, France, Ireland, Latvia, Malta and the U.K.) are still not ready to commit, due to cost-related concerns.

Preparing phone networks and emergency services for the roll-out of eCall in cars across Europe has the full support of the European Parliament and 15 EU countries who have signed the eCall Memorandum of Understanding (Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden) and three other European countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland).

Another six countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Luxembourg, Romania and Poland) support eCall and are willing to sign the agreement in due time.

Before making eCall fully operational across the EU, countries must agree to common standards and guidelines for harmonized deployment of the system and perform field tests putting it into practice (pilots have been launched in some EU countries, including Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Italy and The Netherlands). Through its Competitiveness and Innovation Programme, the EC may financially support such pilots, as well as public awareness campaigns about how the technology works.

In 2008, more than 1.2 million accidents on Europe's roads caused around 39,000 deaths and more than 1.7 million injuries. In addition, road accidents cost the EU economy more than €160 billion a year.

Equipping all cars in the EU with the eCall system could save €26 billion annually, while the system is estimated to cost less than €100 per car. Introducing this device will not only benefit consumers, but also businesses, by enabling the car and telecoms industries to offer new upgraded applications and services (like digital tachographs or electronic tolls) based on eCall to be installed in all vehicles and use satellite positioning technology.

"Too many people are still dying on European roads. Every week I hear about road accidents where eCall would have helped. The time has come for Member States and industry to move from talk to action," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media.

"At [the] EU level, thanks in particular to the continued support of the European Parliament, we have done our part of the job: all the relevant core standards for making eCall possible are in place. Europeans should not have to wait any longer for a system that could save their lives just because their governments fail to act. I want to see the first eCall cars on our roads next year: If the eCall roll-out does not accelerate, the EC stands ready to set out clear rules obliging governments, industry and emergency services to respond."

Background
The EC originally called for eCall to be rolled out voluntarily across Europe by 2009 (see IP/05/134 and IP/06/1720), but the system has been delayed due to lack of support from a minority of EU countries.

The EC has supported work on eCall through research funding for projects that made sure the technology would work across borders (E-MERGE and GST-Rescue) and industry cooperation within the eSafety Initiative.

eCall is one of the priorities of the Intelligent Car Initiative and the Intelligent Transport Systems Action Plan, promoting the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to achieve a smarter, safer and cleaner road transport (see IP/06/191).

In the last two years, the EU provided around €160 million for research into ICT for transport, covering safety systems, intelligent vehicle systems and mobility services.

For more information, see the eCall web site and the eCall video on the Intelligent Car web site.

Source: European Commission (EC).