Emergency? Text 999
SMS emergency services
Trials of a new UK message service are underway which will allow people to contact the emergency services via text.
The system is aimed primarily at those who cannot make voice calls to 999 due to disability or audio impairment when time is of the essence.
The live trial involves people sending text messages in a real emergency and administrators are looking for thousands of volunteers to help conduct the test with a preference for disabled users.
In an emergency, the user sends an SMS, spelling out the nature of the emergency, what service is required and the location.
Through the service, a text will be sent to a voice relay assistant who will read aloud the text to the emergency service needed before texting a response with instructions or questions from the emergency services. Follows will be as many additional texts to grasp the situation.
The government initiative, which is backed by Ofcom, will become permanent in early 2010 should the experiment pass successfully.
The scheme is a joint venture between various UK telecom firms.
People can register for the system by texting the word “register” to 999; if have not signed up to the scheme, even in a catastrophic emergency, people who text will be sent a text back telling them they have not registered.
Help, my phone is on fir..OUCH!
Seems a good idea, but there are many people who cannot text very fast, mostly due to their disabilities.