Trail Testers

On the Hill - On the Web

New Mobile Emergency Number

At last something really useful

It is now common practice to carry a mobile when we go into the hills

and if things turn nasty we can always use it to call for help, or can we?

It is sods law that when you actually need to call the emergency services that either there won’t be a signal, or the battery will be almost flat.

Of course you should only call for help when you really need it and not as some people do when they are simply lost and quite capable of themselves down off the hill

as many mountain rescue teams will tell you.

So let’s say that you have a genuine emergency and you need help fast. You pick up your phone and dial 999 and you get that irritating “No Service” message.

Well thanks to a useful piece of legislation from our friends in Brussels you can now dial 112 and your mobile will search all networks, not just your own, for a connection to the emergency rescue centre.

You can also use 112 from fixed phones, including payphones. Calls to 112 are always free of charge. The 112 functions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This will work in all Member States of the European Union, the European Economic Area and outside of the UK in the following countries:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (including Monaco), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy (including the Vatican), Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

As if that wasn’t enough you can also reach emergency services through 112 in these countries as well:

Croatia, Faroe Islands, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia (in some regions, country-wide by 2012) and Israel where the 112 also works for all emergencies from mobile phones.

Oh I nearly forgot, you can’t call after all because the battery in your phone is dead.....bummer, so if you are going to treat your mobile as an emergency device then make sure the battery is full before you set out, keep the phone on stand by with the keypad locked and consider buying and carrying a spare battery, or a Freeloader,

or you could just shell out and buy a SpoT GPS locator instead.

Dawn Smith - Ed