UAE Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed the technical regulations for the enhancement of the in-vehicle emergency communication system known as the e-Call system which is envisaged to reduce the response time of emergency services by a third.
A system currently invoked in some cars, the e-Call broadcasts emergency messages to the police for instance when in-car sensors establish the occurrence of a severe crash. Information include the model of the car, the area it is located, the type of fuel it uses and the number of people that have been found inside the car.
The plan to update the e-Call system, launched in Abu Dhabi in 2021, implies that the mortality rate on roads will decrease by 2-10 % and the number of severe injuries – by 2-15%.
It also operates by delivering the shortest response time to calls, in this case enabling the dispatching of an attendance in just four minutes.
However, the Data revealed this year that the number of deaths in UAE road carnages increased by 3% in 2022 compared to previous year as shared by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) in May this year. Road fatalities in the country stood at 352 in the year 2023 while in the previous year 2022 road deaths were 343. The 2023 numbers, however, were 8 percent lower than the 381 persons killed in the previous year.
Rescue in a few minutes
The e-Call system or Fazaa is an initiative of the UAE Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) and the former Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology now in the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology and in cooperation with the police department.
Earlier, a similar feature was initially released by Dubai Police called AML (Advanced Machine Location) that enabled mobile phones to alert the police after a crash. The variation that was in the case of AML, was a passenger had to dial 999 for the information to go through while in the e-Call system, the car could make the call. It can also be set off manually with the push of a button.
When the accident report is transmitted, officers in the operations room start a call through the system to speak to passengers to check if they are conscious. A rescue team will then be sent off to reach the site of the accident in a few minutes.