Introduction

The scale of death and injury on roads in Europe needs to be fully comprehended to understand the need for "Emergency Call" (eCall). In 2008 there were 38 900 fatalities in the EU Member States. The provisional figure for 2009 is around 34 500 fatalities. The trend 2001-2008 is around 5 % reduction annually. Road accident injuries are in the region of 1,7 million (2007). Roads remain unsafe, and further efforts are needed. The pan-European in-vehicle emergency call, 'eCall', is estimated to have the potential to save up to 2 500 fatalities annually in the EU when fully deployed, and furthermore to reduce the severity of injuries, to bring significant savings to the society in and to reduce human suffering.

Emergency calls made from vehicles or mobile telephones using wireless technologies, can assist with the objectives of significantly reducing road deaths and injuries, but drivers often have poor (imprecise) location awareness, especially on interurban roads or abroad. Additionally, in many situations the car occupants may not be in a position to call using a normal mobile phone.

The situation is worse for those travelling abroad. A high (and increasing) number of vehicles travelling outside their home country is thus also contributing to the need for automated emergency call system in vehicles. In EU there are over 100 million trips to another EU country per year, 65 % of the people feel less protected while abroad and most do not know which number to call in an emergency (in some countries over 60 %). Language problems are pertinent and may render proper communication difficult.Yet, in the most crucial cases, the victim(s) may not be able to call because they have been injured/trapped, do not know the local number to call, and in many cases, particularly in rural situations and late at night, there may be no witnesses who happen to have a mobile phone and a sense of community.

eCall, in the context of "Intelligent Transport Systems" or "ITS",(previously known as "Road Traffic and Transport Telematics") can be described as a "user instigated or automatic system to provide notification to public safety answering points, by means of wireless communications, that a vehicle has crashed, and to provide coordinates and a defined minimum set of data, and where possible a voice link to the PSAP”.

The objective of implementing the pan-European in-vehicle emergency call system (eCall) is to automate the notification of a traffic accident, wherever in the European Union and associated countries, with the same technical standards and the same quality of services objectives of other emergency services (for example the TS12 emergency call of GSM/UMTS).

This European Standard specifies the "Minimum Set of Data" (MSD) to be transferred by such an in-vehicle eCall system in the event of a crash or emergency.

NOTE The communications media and means of transferring the eCall MSD are not defined in this European Standard. See list of referenced Standards.

BS EN 15722:2015

Intelligent transport systems. ESafety. ECall minimum set of data

Published:

30 Apr 2015

Withdrawn:

4 Sep 2020