Calling 9-1-1 from a cell phone will soon automatically give emergency dispatchers an approximate location from the caller.
Wireless Phase II, a new information gathering system, involves cell phone companies sending information gathered through triangulation or, if it has one, the phone's global positioning system, directly to dispatchers with each 9-1-1 call. The result is emergency crews being able to locate the call to within 300 metres.
Gary Carr, spokesman for emergency communications centre (E-Comm) in Vancouver, said this new tool is ideal for situations where a witness makes a 9-1-1 call while driving in an unfamiliar place. He added that with the growing use of cell phones, this tool is more likely to prove useful. 2008 was the first year that more than 50 per cent of 9-1-1 calls E-Comm gets came from cell phones.
Bob Allen, support search manager for the Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue Society, said Wireless Phase II has good potential for rescuers locating lost individuals if they have cell phone coverage.
"It will pinpoint their area and we can locate them much quicker than trying to get them to describe where they might be," he said.
Allen said he recalled an incident where two teenagers were lost on Gambier Island and rescuers had to get them to describe what they could see from the shoreline. The teens were rescued and in good health, but Allen said with Wireless Phase II, rescuers would have found them much sooner.
Wireless Phase II is set to begin testing in August on the Sunshine Coast and be fully implemented by January 2010. The federal government has mandated that all cell phone service carriers be able to locate cell phone calls by February 2010.
