Members of the European Parliament (Europarl) have set up a new draft legislation to install the in-vehicle eCall system in all new models of cars and light vans in the European Union by October 2015.
Under the new draft rule, which is mandatory, emergency call devices must be equipped to all vehicles to automatically alert rescue services to car crashes.
The in-vehicle eCall system automatically alerts the emergency services to serious road accidents by using the emergency call number 112 technology.
It will enable the emergency services to reach the exact location to save victims, reduce the severity of injuries and the cost of traffic jams.
Rapporteur Olga Sehnalova said that the deployment of a public EU-wide emergency call system represents a very important achievement for the safety of European road users.
"About 2500 lives could be saved every year in Europe as well as the severity of injuries could be considerably reduced in tens of thousands of cases," Sehnalova added.
"The eCall will be free of charge, for the benefit of any driver in Europe independently of the car he or she drives."
Image: EU makes eCall devices mandatory in cars by 2015. Photo courtesy of European Parliament.
