The Chief Executive of RoadPeace, the UK national charity for road crash victims, is supporting a start-up company’s plans to maximise the use of data from the in-built vehicle safety system eCall.
Speaking during the Project EDWARD (Every Day Without a Road Death) awareness week, Nick Simmons described the VESOS innovation as “vital” in making our roads safer and ensuring victims of road crashes get the best possible emergency attention as quickly as possible.
eCall is a built-in safety feature which automatically activates in the event of a collision when the airbags are deployed, giving emergency services a range of information including the exact location of the incident. It can also be manually activated by the driver or passenger by pressing a button to report something they see, like a stopped vehicle on a live motorway. Since 2018, all new cars and vans supplied in Europe are fitted with eCall which means one in five vehicles on UK roads have it. There are now more than 10,000 UK alerts every month.
VESOS, launched by four of the world’s leading connected vehicle experts, is the first dedicated company for analysing and processing eCall data to create validated incident alerts. The company will also provide consultancy services on implementation and business cases for eCall, as well as strategic advice and data analysis.
“I am excited by the solutions being developed by VESOS,” commented Mr Simmons. “The company’s TeCall software filters, enhances, prioritises, and forwards eCall incidents that emergency services need, in the form they need, in seconds, maximising the chances people will get the right assistance they need as quickly as possible. It is a lifesaver, and it is vital emergency services and road organisations embrace this technology and use it as part of their routine operations.”
VESOS co-owner Andy Rooke, who has worked on the concept of eCall and its real-world implementation over the past 20 years added, “Those of us who know eCall have first-hand experience about how it saves lives, having seen emergency services automatically receive important information about location, incident severity and vehicle type so they can get to a collision site quickly with the right equipment. I am heartened that such a charity like RoadPeace understands the value of the technology. Efficient use of eCall means that in the future it will mean fewer bereaved families will need its support.”
eCall technology not only alerts emergency services to a traffic collision. Road operators benefit too, because within seconds of an incident being detected, systems can automatically set warning signs and close lanes, keeping those involved far safer in the carriageway. eCall alerts from airbag activations are a highly reliable and rapid indicator of a collision that could become a major event.
(Picture – VESOS/KL Systems)
