The fist international HeERO conference covering e-Call – a new future service for automatic traffic accident reporting to a unique operation and communications centre112, was held on Nov. 15 and 16, 2012 at Westin hotel in Zagreb. The conference was organized by the National Protection and Rescue Directorate in cooperation with the European organizations ERTICO – ITS Europe and EENA (European Emergency Number Association, and partners in the pilot project, Hrvatski autoklub and Ericsson Nikola Tesla as a technologic partner.
The basic aim of e-Call service is to increase the safety in road traffic and the human life safety in general. The project development has been supported by European Committee from its very beginning. Besides Croatia, such e-Call pilot projects have been carried out in eight European countries: Romania, Germany, Czech Republic , Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Sweden, all gathered in a common pan-European project HeERO (Harmonized eCall European Pilot).
The conference aim was to present the joint efforts and results of all countries and the assessment and validation of the set norms and specifications of e-Call service.
Jadran Perinić, DSc, the head of the National Protection and Rescue Directorate, addressed the audience with a statement: ”When fully implemented in a daily practice, e-Call will shorten the response time when a traffic accidence occurs, contribute to efficiency of human life rescue, prevent from accidents pile up, reduce recovery time for participants in accidents, as well as it will reduce costs of healthcare and rehabilitation of the injured. Thanks to the intensive and engaged work of all participants in the National consortium, Croatia is ready for e-Call service implementation“.
On behalf of the European Parliament, Olga Sehnalova, the representative in the given body, addressed the audience and pointed out the following: “I extend my full support to efforts on the project HeERO that was also stated in the European Parliament report on e-Call. Such a close cooperation of all participants, especially as the authentification of e-Call at state border crossings is concerned, is an important step towards mandatory implementation of this system for all EU country members bi 2015.”
On the first day of the conference Krešimir Vidović, a Solution Architect from Ericsson Nikola Tesla held a presentation that attracted the participants. The topic of the presentation was: “Results of the Croatian e-Call Pilot Project”. In the given presentation it was pointed out that the first stage of eCall testing in Croatia had just ended. The data analysis confirms that already now have a robust and reliable e-Call service, in compliance with the set regulations. This statement was proved by a number of interoperability tests performed, and interoperability is considered a primary goal of the HeERO project.
The successful demonstration of e-Call in Croatia was effected by initiating a device to be installed into a vehicle and manufactured by different manufacturers such as from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Romania and Sweden. An e-Call set up and its receipt by the 112 service at the National Protection and Rescue Directorate was monitored in live by a direct video conference.
Communications Ericsson Nikola Tesla
