ECALL BASED ON 112 IN EUROPE
HEERO 2 PROJECT FINAL EVENT
From the 27th to the 28th November 2014, the final HeERO International Conference will take place in Madrid, Spain. It will highlight the final outcomes, impact and results of the HeERO 2 project. Each pilot site will share its experiences and participants will have the opportunity to see eCall demonstration.
The event is held under the high auspices of the European Commission in cooperation with ERTICO ITS-Europe (project coordinator), the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) and is hosted by the Spanish pilot site coordinator Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT).
The HeERO projects (Harmonised eCall European pilot) address the pan-European in-vehicle emergency call service “eCall” based on 112, the common European Emergency number.
For four years (HeERO phase 1 in 2011-2013 & HeERO phase 2 in 2013-2014), 15 countries carried out the start-up process of an interoperable and harmonised emergency call system.
eCall is an in-vehicle system that, in case of an incident, is able to call either automatically or manually the European emergency number 112 and then transmit relevant information to emergency services. eCall will be required to be installed on all new types of cars from early 2018 (according to EU legislation that is being finalised), meaning that all EU countries should be able to handle eCalls based on 112 from 1st October 2017.
ERTICO – ITS Europe’s Senior Project Manager and HeERO Project Coordinator Andy Rooke observed: “The HeERO projects have made such a positive contribution to the deployment of eCall based on 112 across Europe. As a result of the project there are now 14 Member States who know exactly how to deploy eCall. This is a positive contribution to casualty reduction across Europe”.
Gary Machado, EENA Executive Director, notes: “I am delighted that eCall based on 112 will finally be up and running after more than 10 years of discussion. I would like to thank the 15 HeERO pilot sites for their hard works showing that we can make it!”.
The conference will be attended by more than 200 delegates from industry, mobile network operators, emergency services from over 40 countries in Europe and beyond. Speakers will include officials of the European Commission, Governmental and Senior members of Spanish Pilot Site as well as many representatives of HeERO 2 consortium.
On the 28th November 2014, there will be live practical demonstrations of eCall performed at the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT)Madrid.
For more information, please visit the event webpage:
http://www.heero-pilot.eu/view/en/events/heeroconf_nov2014.html
Note to editors:
About HeERO
The HeERO projects address the pan-European in-vehicle emergency call service “eCall” based on 112, the common European Emergency number.
For three years (January 2011 to December 2013), the nine European countries forming the HeERO 1 consortium (Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Romania and Sweden) carried out the start-up of an interoperable and harmonised in-vehicle emergency call system. The second phase of the HeERO project – HeERO 2 – started on 1st January 2013 and will conclude end of 2014. 6 new countries (namely Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey) joined the other 9 pilot sites of HeERO 1. Furthermore, other countries became associate partners, a status allowing them to benefit from the expertise of HeERO 1 and 2 but not granting them access to EC funding.
The HeERO consortium is testing and validating in real condition pilot sites the common European eCall standards defined and approved by the European Standardisation Bodies.
The project is partially funded by the European Commission under the ICT PSP programme.
About ERTICO – ITS Europe
ERTICO – ITS Europe is a multi-sector, public/private partnership pursuing the development and deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS). We connect public authorities, industry players, infrastructure operators, users, national ITS associations and other organisations together and work to bring “Intelligence into Mobility”.
The ERTICO work programme focuses on initiatives to improve transport safety, security and network efficiency whilst taking into account measures to reduce environmental impact. Our vision is of a future transport system working towards zero accidents, zero delays and fully informed people, where services are affordable and seamless, the environment is protected, privacy is respected and security is provided.
About the European Emergency Number Association (EENA)
EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, is a Brussels-based NGO set up in 1999 dedicated to promoting high-quality emergency services reached by the number 112 throughout the EU. EENA serves as a discussion platform for emergency services, public authorities, decision makers, researchers, associations and solution providers with a view to improving the emergency response in accordance with citizens’ requirements. EENA is also promoting the establishment of an efficient system for alerting citizens about imminent or developing emergencies.
The EENA memberships include over 1,000 emergency services representatives from more than 75 countries world-wide, 75 solution providers, 15 international associations/organisations, 130 Members of the European Parliament and 70 researchers.
Contact point: Jerome Paris (jp@eena.org)
