Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the deployment of the interoperable EU-wide eCall

Road safety is one of the major elements of the European Union’s transport policy. In 2011 around 30,000 people were killed and more than 1.5 million injured in about 1.1 million traffic accidents on EU roads. In addition to the tragedy of loss of life and injury, this also carries an economic burden of around €130 billion in costs to society every year. The EU is fully committed to reducing the number of road accidents (through accident prevention or active safety), mitigating the consequences of accidents when they occur (passive safety), and improving the efficiency of the emergency services and the effectiveness of post-accident medical care (tertiary safety). In this context, eCall can significantly contribute to the reduction of road fatalities and alleviation of severity of road injuries.

Every minute is crucial to save lives and reduce the severity of injuries when emergency services are called to a road accident. eCall devices alert emergency services immediately, even if the driver or passenger is unconscious or otherwise unable to call, and speed up the arrival of emergency teams by an estimated 40% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas. eCall can also have a significant impact on the reduction of the congestion caused by the traffic accidents and thus the overall congestion of the European roads.

Therefore, the harmonised implementation of an interoperable EU-wide eCall service in the EU has been in the agenda of the Commission since 2005 and has become now a priority action for the improvement of road safety and the deployment of ITS in Europe.

This proposal addresses the part concerning the Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) infrastructure in the Commission strategy on eCall, based on a three-pronged regulatory approach encompassing the in-vehicle system, the telecommunications networks and the PSAPs.

See also Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning type-approval requirements for the deployment of the eCall in-vehicle system and amending Directive 2007/46/EC

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)315: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:315:FIN

ESO: Background information: eCall: automated emergency call for road accidents mandatory in cars from 2015 http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-ecall-automated-emergency-call-for-road-accidents-mandatory-in-cars-from-2015/

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