Cross-sectoral conference highlights importance of an integrated approach to roa

Creation date: 31 March 2006

Organised by the Irish National Roads Authority, the conference “An Integrated Approach to Road Safety” gathered stakeholders from enforcement agencies and government departments, as well as legislators, educators and health care workers in Dublin on 7 and 8 March.

Giving an overview of current best practice in the field of road safety, the event featured speakers from Sweden, UK, USA, Denmark, Australia and Ireland. Rasmus Lindholm, from the eCall Driving Group, made a presentation on the road map for implementation of eCall, the pan-European in-vehicle emergency call.

Generated either manually by a vehicle occupant or automatically via activation of in-vehicle sensors, such a call will establish voice contact with the nearest emergency centre (Public Service Answering Point) and automatically transmit key data about the accident.

Mr Lindholm said that significant progress had been made towards the full-scale roll out of eCall, but that challenges still remained. If national and regional governments do not invest in the necessary infrastructure, he warned, eCall will not be available by the 2009 deadline. He went on to list a series of actions that Member States must implement if eCall is to succeed:

· Sign the Memorandum of Understanding on eCall
· Promote the single European emergency number 112 and so called E112 - 112 calls from mobile phones with location information. eCall technology will be based on E112 and it is therefore crucial that this is implemented Europe-wide.
· Prepare the Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs) for handling eCalls, allocating resources for language training and upgrading identification and call handling services.

The eCall Driving Group’s final recommendations will be published end April 2006.

For more information please visit the eCall Toolbox.