In Europe, during 2004, 1,7 million people were injured in road accidents and 43,500 were killed. Fast and effective care of polytraumatized people by the emergency services can reduce the number of those seriously injured and killed.
An automatic emergency call system has been installed on PSA passenger cars in France and in seven other European countries. It is an integrated car radio/GSM/GPS system that can be used with a SIM card. When an accident occurs, a call is sent automatically to a telephone call centre. Knowing the geographic location, the vehicle and owner identity and the possibility of communicating directly with the persons involved enables the nearest emergency services to be called out.
In this context, the LAB has set up a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of these systems. It consists of:
During the system's first years of operation, about forty cases have been studied in detail, using accident analysis investigation procedures.
The initial findings show that pinpointing the exact accident location enables the emergency services to reach the scene very quickly. In addition, some important vehicles characteristics are transmitted to them. A future system improvement could be the calculation of the accident’s severity, the impact type and the number of people involved.
The development of this automatic call equipment should continue in France and in Europe. It will be an additional tool in the fight against road injury and death, particularly for accidents at night, involving single vehicles and in isolated areas. The purpose of this article is to explain the method of investigation used and present the first experimental feedback.