The facts about emergency numbers

IN VIEW of the confusion with emergency telephone numbers for boaters, a professional engineer, accident investigator and safety manager that includes responsibilities with the second largest telecom network in Britain has offered his advice:

When you dial 112 on a phone in the UK (mobile or landline) the network treats it in exactly the same way as dialling 999. It does not matter which number you dial you will get exactly the same response with the same level of accuracy from the same operator, with the same access to support services like interpreters. 112 was introduced as an alternative to 999 since many visitors to this country instinctively dial 112 in an emergency as it is the number to use in their own country and 112 works throughout the EU.

Confirm location

If you dial either 999 or 112 from a landline the database provided by the telecom company shows the emergency operator the address the phone is registered to. In a large company that may be the address of their internal telephone exchange and the actual location of the phone can be some distance away. It can occasionally be out of date if the phone has been moved and the telecom company has missed updating the database. That is why callers are always asked to confirm their location.

Triangulation

If you dial either 999 or 112 from a mobile then the emergency operator knows instantly which network you are calling through and which base station your call has been connected through and its location. That gives a very approximate location of the caller. The network automatically carries out 'triangulation' from other base stations which can also 'hear' the caller's mobile signal as quickly as possible. This can often take less than a second but can sometimes take 30 seconds or more and, on rare occasions, it is not possible.

This triangulation depends on how many other base stations (from the same operator) can 'hear' your signal. In an urban area there will probably be several base stations which can hear your signal and the estimate of position can be made quickly to within a few tens of metres, sometimes less. In a rural area there will be few other base stations which can hear the signal and the signal may be faint and unclear. In those cases it may take many seconds for the further base stations to lock on to the signal and the estimate of position may take some time to happen and may only be accurate to hundreds of metres.

Moors in a rural cutting

On rare occasions there will not be any, or enough, other base stations which can hear the signal to make any estimate. In those cases all that will be know is that the caller is probably within 10 miles of the base station they are connected to. If a caller moors in a cutting at a rural location it is very likely that is all that will happen since they will struggle to even be heard from one base station.

Modern phones can make emergency calls through any network, not just the one they are registered with, and that can occasionally cause confusion, with the user who gets a Cable & Wireless operator when registered to T-Mobile, for example, although that is not relevant to this discussion.

Instances of delay

Turning to my role as an accident investigator and safety manager in my day job. A few years ago a rumour circulated within my industry that 112 should always be used and that this enabled accurate location of the caller. There were several instances where this delayed the accident response with a poorer outcome for an injured person. One person lost a limb because the response was delayed which could probably have been saved and there was one fatality, which might have been prevented by a faster response. In neither case can we be certain that the delay caused the worsened outcome but it is likely and there were many other examples of delayed response which will almost always be worse for the patient.

In some case the caller believed that the emergency services would know their accurate position by dialling 112 and, despite frequent requests by the emergency operator to identify their location, they insisted in their panic in giving other information first and doing other things first leading to emergency services vehicles touring the general area looking for someone to help. The investigations revealed in these cases that the caller was so sure, from the rumour, that the emergency services would know their accurate location that they did other things first. They were appalled that their mis-believing the rumour had led to the delays.

Without unlocking

Older mobile phones have to be unlocked to make any call, including those to emergency services. More modern phones (UK bought) allow calls to 999 without unlocking. Very modern phones (UK bought) allow calls to 999 and 112 without unlocking. This allows anybody to use anybody's mobile to make an emergency call. Modern mobile phones or SIM cards from other countries (as used by boating visitors to this country) will allow calls without unlocking to the emergency numbers they are programmed to recognise which may include 999 and/or 112 and/or the number from their home country.

Again, in my investigation role I have found examples where people have believed they get a better response by dialling 112. On one occasion this substantially delayed a response. The caller, who did not have a mobile phone of their own, found another person semi-conscious. They quickly found a phone in the semi-conscious persons pocket and tried to call 112 but this phone was of an age that it only allowed 999 calls without unlocking. The caller spent a long time trying to unlock the phone and to get the semi-conscious person to unlock the phone so they could call 112. In the end they called 999, which they could do without unlocking, and got exactly the same response. They were also appalled about their mis-believing the rumour that led to the delays when they discovered this afterwards.

We put considerable efforts into squashing the rumour throughout the industry, and I am not aware of any delays or problems in the last few years. Everyone now knows that dialling 112 and 999 are exactly the same.

I am disappointed to see the same rumour has now appeared on your website. There is a serious risk that the same problems will occur with the same risks to health. Your article may lead to people making the same two mistakes

• Delaying a call from a locked phone while trying to unlock it to call 112 believing this will get a superior response when they could get exactly the same response by dialling 999
• Believing the operator will always automatically know where you are calling from by calling 112 and failing to give this information verbally

It would be a tragedy if someone reading your article repeated these mistakes and led to a worsening of the outcome of an accident.

[The writer has particular interest as he has been a boater for 45 years.]