The need to send the right emergency resource to the right place is as important now as it ever was, and the European standard eCall provides control rooms with valuable information.
When it comes to road collisions, any firefighter will tell you every second counts. However, drivers calling 999 will not necessarily know exactly where they are, or their direction, which leads to instances where, for example, two crews are sent to a motorway collision, one in one direction and one in the other.
Sending the wrong resources can cost lives, so the alternative is often to send extra resources which costs money. Add to that the different techniques needed to deal with petrol, diesel or electric vehicles, and fire crews are often relying on guesswork.
eCall
Since 2018, the eCall safety system has been mandated in every new car and van on UK roads. eCall is a built-in safety feature which automatically activates when airbags are deployed and can also be manually activated by pressing a button.
eCall not only alerts emergency services when a collision involves an unconscious driver but also provides data making an emergency responder’s job easier. This includes the vehicle’s exact location, direction of travel, fuel type and VIN number, plus whether it was manually or automatically activated and how many seat belts are in use. This means emergency crews know where to go, the vehicle type they will be dealing with, how many people they might find and what condition they may be in.
For emergency services to access the data, the call taker/controller needs to access the EISEC (Enhanced Information Service for Emergency Calls) system to pull data from BT. However, in discussions with several emergency services, I have discovered the data is not always accessed. The reasons are multiple and complex, but the fact remains that EISEC is not always used to its best advantage.
Analysis
There is a huge opportunity to make the full use of eCall. eCall data alerts reduce current voice-led response times by a factor of ten. Enhancing existing voice channels with a new data channel, coupled with automatic data filtering, can radically reduce the time taken to know of an event needing a response.
Therefore, Intelligent Transport Systems experts and consultants Andy Graham, Danny Woolard, Alan Gentle and I came together to form VESOS, the first dedicated company for analysing and processing eCall data to create validated incident alerts. The company also provides consultancy services on implementation and business cases for eCall, as well as strategic advice and data analysis.
VESOS’s ‘TeCall’ platform sits between the eCall service provider and highways and emergency command and control centre systems, filtering, enhancing, prioritising and forwarding eCall incidents that emergency services need, in the form they need, in seconds. It is also a valuable historic data source.
TeCall delivers data about a road incident quicker than an operator can say, ‘What’s your emergency?’. TeCall alerts complement existing voice channels and only report incidents in the geographical areas emergency services want, filters out alerts from faulty units, provides data for analysis and operations and ultimately saves lives by reducing response times. In the Connected Vehicle world, eCall is at the forefront. It’s not a question of if but when to start properly using eCall data.
Available
I believe the work I and my VESOS colleagues are doing is unique in the world of eCall, delivering the analysis, assessment and implementation of eCall within the world of connected vehicles to the obvious benefit of emergency services and the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. What we need now is a willing Fire and Rescue Service or two to work with us in taking the concept into the Control Room, improving efficiency and emergency response in the process.
Watch more about connected services at vesos.co.uk/video
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