A destroyed cell phone caused rescue workers in Wimmeringhausen to launch a massive operation. As the Olsberg Volunteer Fire Department reports, an accident was reported to the rescue control center via the smartphone’s automatic eCall system. The alarm was probably triggered by the impact on the ground.
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There According to the fire department If no telephone contact could be made with the cell phone owner, all emergency services were alerted. Despite an intensive search, the emergency services were unable to locate any accidents in the cell phone’s location area, nor could they locate the cell phone’s owner. The fire brigade asks that special care be taken of devices with an e-call function, as these types of operations are becoming more frequent.
eCall is an emergency call system that, in the event of an accident, contacts a rescue center automatically or by pressing a button, reports the situation and other parameters and even enables a voice connection. New cars must have a built-in communication module with its own SIM card. The EU had suggested that the eCall system could also be used by all smartphones. For example, an eCall system for retrofitting consists of a combination of a smartphone and a cigarette lighter plug. The EU hopes that the eCall requirement will reduce the number of road deaths because rescuers will arrive much faster. However, there are also concerns about whether the system could act as a “spy in the car”.
Two types of e-call systems
There are two types of e-Call systems: “public e-Call” and “private e-Call”. While emergency calls with public e-Call are received directly by 112 as the rescue control centre throughout Europe, private e-Call first contacts the control centre of the respective provider. This process has been criticised by professional rescue service providers, who fear that it results in valuable time being lost. However, private providers argue that their control centres can filter out the many false alarms resulting from manual emergency calls.
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