Enhanced 999 Calling for Exact Location of Emergency Calls to Soon become Mandatory
A Scottish company has just launched the new Enhanced 999 calling solution, which traces the emergency call to its exact location. This will be of great use, especially for big, multi-site organisations and with lone workers, as in these cases help cannot currently reach exact locations as the present system is unable to track the caller. In the current system, paramedics who receive an emergency call are only provided with a common number and not the exact caller location or the extension from where the call was made.
Legal experts have cautioned that under the health and safety laws, businesses could be sued if they fail to implement the newly launched system, as they would be responsible if emergency services fail to reach one of their employees due to a lack of information. In the words of Claire Anderson, a specialist health and safety lawyer, it is the employers’ responsibility to provide their staff with access to emergency services. Speaking to The Scotsman, she said that the Health and Safety Executive could serve notices and prosecute companies that do not use the new technology if it concludes that they have not taken proper steps to protect their employees.
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These systems are already in use in America, where companies use them to protect their staff from workplace accidents and themselves from legal action. Many states have made it mandatory for companies to provide exact location of their staff to emergency services, failing which they could even face closure.
