An automatic emergency call system appeared on Peugeot and Citroën vehicles in France since 2003, which has been rewarded by Euro NCAP in 2010 as an advanced innovative solution. The LAB in close cooperation with the CEESAR has set up a study aiming at evaluating the effectiveness of this system. The eCall efficiency evaluation will be based on real accidents where eCall was automatically triggered. It will aim to confirm or not the assumptions given by the European Commission: 2 500 lives saved in Europe if 100% of the fleet is equipped with such a system.
Several studies using “a priori” methods were already led on eCall benefit evaluation (Trace, eImpact and LAB results). In this study, we suggest a benefit evaluation with "a posteriori" method, based on real accident cases involving vehicles equipped with eCall. For each studied case, an expert judgment is realized to qualify or not eCall vital contribution. All these judgments allow estimating system global efficiency.
Created in 2004, the specific "eCall" database contains about 3 100 automatic emergency call notifications. More than 150 variables summarize accident circumstances, involved eCall vehicle information’s, feelings of people cared for by this means as well as rescue teams feedback. Four eCall efficiency can be applied for each person involved in the accident: eCall considered as not necessary, eCall considered as useful, eCall considered as urgent and eCall considered as vital. ECall is considered as useful when involved occupants were not able to prevent the rescue team and\or did not know how to be located. The system is considered as urgent when eCall is judged as useful and when the victim has severe injuries that could be degraded. ECall is considered as vital when the victim has severe injuries that could be made this victim to die.
The "eCall" database is rather new and limited in number of coded cases. It is not representative of accidents in France. Indeed, accidents are selected with regard to their interest (new vehicles, accident typologies). However, it is regularly filled with accident cases whose number increases due to the presence of more and more PSA eCall system in Europe. Thanks to this, the “a posteriori” benefit evaluation is unique and is based, for the first time in Europe, on real life accident cases where automatic triggered eCall occurred.
This new study allows to refine the eCall system effectiveness with a 2.8 % benefit regarding fatalities. This result based on real world accidentologic data is lower than the figure initially estimated in the 2000s, which was about 5 to 6 %. Besides, this evaluation only focused on passenger cars with an assumption of 100% of equipment rate. All these surveys allow us to define a realistic effectiveness interval of this device between 3% and 10%. It represents a real additional system against road deaths and injuries, in particular for accidents occurring at night, in rural areas and involving a single vehicle. The outcome of this paper can be used for the current discussion taking place in Europe for the foreseen regulation on 112.