112 BE: “The life-saving app”

Emergency centres 112
Information campaign
Today marks the launch of four videos intended to promote the use of the “112 BE” app by people who may not yet know about it. This app has existed for three years and, ever since, it has already been downloaded over 930,000 times.
app 112 BE: “The life-saving app”

 

And the promotion campaign comes in four videos: the first one is about police assistance, the second one focuses on the intervention of the fire brigade, the third video gives an example of urgent medical assistance and the last one is the longer version with these three topics. You may watch and download these videos on www.112.be.

 

 

If you have a smartphone, the 112 BE app has many advantages compared to a simple phone call to 112 or 101:

  • You no longer have to remember the emergency numbers and therefore will not forget them anymore if you're in distress.
  • Thanks to this app, it will be much easier for the emergency services to localize your position. The app does indeed send your position to the emergency call centre as soon as you call and then updates your location every 30 seconds.
  • It is also possible for the emergency call centre to activate the chat functionality if the operator cannot understand you.  
  • If you have already registered your medical information previously, then the operator will have some of that info available as soon as he or she takes your call, meaning you will not have to tell him or her you suffer from a condition such as heart problems, allergies (to medication), epilepsy, diabetes,... and the operator can thus give this data more rapidly to the emergency services.

The 112 BE app is completely free, just as any call to the emergency services, and it only works in Belgium.