The second Portuguese Workshop “I_HeERO – Field Operational Tests” took place at the VIP Executive Zurique Hotel in Lisbon on 23 March 2017. The workshop was organised by the Institute for Mobility and Transport, I.P. (IMT). IMT brings together consortium members, led by the Ministry of Internal Administration, to participate in the European project i_HeERO – Harmonised eCall European Pilot.

The workshop was attended by 90 participants from the public and private sectors involved in road safety, including the Motorway Concessionaires of Portugal, the Public Security Police, the National Civil Protection Authority, Fire-fighters, the National Authority of Road Safety, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies, the National Communications Authority, Communications Operators, Public Utility Institutions of the sector, consulting companies covering  telecommunications, technology, information technology, electronic engineering and information systems and automobile manufacturing companies. Specialised media partners provided press coverage.

The event covered the development of the pre-implementation pilot of eCall in Portugal, and its integration into the European project I_HeERO. The I_HeERO project is co-financed by the European Commission.

The central objective of the I_HeERO project is to prepare each Member State’s Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) for the implementation of eCall based on emergency number 112, as defined in the ITS Directive (2010/40 / EU). I_HeERO also develops studies aimed at the extension of the eCall mechanism to the transport of dangerous substances in order to trigger the necessary emergency services in case of an accident/incident.

The workshop was opened by Dr. Jorge Gomes, Secretary of State for Internal Administration, followed by contributions of the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration (SGMAI), Portuguese Coordinator of the I_HeERO project, and five Portuguese consortium partners (NOS, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure / Intergraph Portugal, Institute for Mobility and Transport, IP (IMT, I.P), GMV Portugal and Instituto Electrotécnico Português (IEP)). The meeting included presentations by Transportes Paulo Duarte, Lda. company, Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) and the Portuguese Association of Motorway Concessionaires or Toll Bridges (APCAP), entities that agreed to cooperate in the I_HeERO project activities. In addition, there was a presentation by the person responsible for the eCall area of AVAYA, a telecommunications company that provides solutions, services and innovations for communications.

The event was also attended by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Administration, Dr. Carlos Palma, and the Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Internal Administration, Eng. Francisco Gomes. The closing session was the responsibility of the President of the Board of Direction of the Institute of Mobility and Transport, I.P., Dr. Eduardo Feio, who highlighted the next steps of the I_HeERO project:

  • End-to-end validation testing of the eCall system in Portugal (field tests in rural, urban, tunnel, motorway and border areas), in order to validate the technological and functional properties, to evaluate the performance of the system and to detect any failures or problems, given the complexity of the communication infrastructure;
  • Testing the extension of existing eCall mechanisms to include additional information related to the transport of dangerous goods and to trigger the most appropriate relief measures and eCall data integration model between 112 Operational Centres and other stakeholders in Portugal.

The workshop also announced that the third and final workshop of the project “I_HeERO – Portugal ready for eCall” is scheduled for October 2017 and will focus on Portugal’s readiness to implement basic infrastructure to receive and handle eCall calls sent by motor vehicles involved in accidents.

Access the agenda and presentations here
English version of agenda: Agenda
Video of the event here
Photos of the event here

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