Text by
Alexis GIZIKIS
Project Manager | European Emergency Number Association – EENA112
In addition to a rich set of features, WorkingAge is planning to implement an emergency alert service, aiming to trigger a E112 call when an alert is raised. The term E112 refers to a location enhanced 112 call, or in simple words, a 112 call with the emergency responders being able to retrieve the caller location by technical means. In WorkingAge, the emergency alert service is referred to as “E112 service”.
Caller location is crucial in an emergency call, in order to allow emergency services to dispatch first responders to where they are needed. When a 112 call is made, call-takers cannot always retrieve the location of the caller, or the location is not accurate enough. Location information is usually provided by the caller during the voice emergency call, but there are cases that callers are not able to report their location, for example when travelling, when not able to provide an accurate location in a rural environment, or due to a medical condition and in many other cases. It should be noted that with the ongoing changes in recent years, identification of caller location for calls initiated from mobile phones is now possible in some EU member states and it is expected to be available in all member states in the next few years.
The WorkingAge E112 service aims to trigger a 112 call when an emergency alert is raised and automatically provide emergency services with the necessary data to make emergency response possible and possibly more effective. In addition to the location information, the WorkingAge emergency alert message will also include medical data from the WorkingAge sensors, aiming to provide first responders with increased awareness about each emergency call.
The implementation of the E112 service will follow a standardised method to send the data to emergency services. Following a standardised data transfer protocol will help reach an agreement with emergency services, when WA is to be deployed in a real operation environment and will reduce the need for further implementation at that stage.
Emergency alerting is not the main objective of the WorkingAge tool, but it is seen as a complementary service. The scope of the service is to provide emergency services with the data already available in the tool, which could help achieve a better emergency response.
( Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash )
