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There was a claim at one point that, due to the popularity of American TV shows in Europe, during household emergencies kids were calling 911 instead of the loc
by alexpotato 1y ago
There was a claim at one point that, due to the popularity of American TV shows in Europe, during household emergencies kids were calling 911 instead of the local version (e.g. it's 999 in some European countries)
- fellerts 1y agoI'd expect 911 to redirect to one of the emergency services in most/all European countries, no?
- detaro 1y agoAFAIK in mobile networks yes (911 and 112 are specified as emergency numbers in the specs and redirected as needed), not necessarily on landlines.
- KingOfCoders 1y agoWhy?
- dagw 1y agoBecause if someone is obviously trying to contact the emergency services it's probably a good idea to connect them to the emergency services.
- eqvinox 1y agoYou're answering the wrong question. Why would 911 be "obviously trying to contact emergency services"?
- Hamuko 1y agoBecause it's a number used for emergency services in many parts of the world, and not for ordering pizza, plane strikes or whatever.
- eqvinox 1y agoRelatively speaking, it actually isn't that popular - check the map on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_... That's what, 10% of world population? 112 has India going for it…
- justinrubek 1y ago10% sounds incredibly significant. That's nearly a billion people.
- eqvinox 1y agoSure. And in a spherical cow world, assuming you want to make n emergency numbers work, you'd sort by population-using and take the first n. …but even then 911 would only be an emergency phone number if n ≥ 3; first two places being taken by 112 and 110 (because China). However, this completely ignores facts like people from China being far less likely to travel to e.g. the US… it's more of a "of the people who'd make emergency calls in XYZ, what numbers would they use" consideration… …it's really not an easy question. GSM went with 112 and 911 and I guess that's as good as an answer this'll get.
- ctxc 1y agoPrevailing culture. A kid these days in most urban parts would tend to say "911 I have an emergency" while roleplaying because we hear it so much in popular culture.
- gsinclair 1y agoBecause US culture is exported around the world.
- soneil 1y agoWhat else would someone who dials 911 be trying to achieve? And does the benefit outweigh the cost? 911 has enough mindshare that it'd be silly to use it for anything else. And if you're not going to use it for anything, a redirect seems like a very productive way to park it.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Ralfp 1y agoDepends on country but in Poland where I live calling 911 also reaches emergency dispatch even if „valid” number is 112.
- Rodeoclash 1y agoIt did in New Zealand in the late 90s
- swiftcoder 1y agoNo, only in a handful of countries, or on US airbases. 112 is your friend in all of Europe
- Symbiote 1y ago112 should work in almost the whole world on a mobile phone, since it's part of the GSM standard.
- cguess 1y ago112 works in the reverse way in the US as well (along with 999 which is the equivalent in many other countries such as the UK). There's not really any reason not to have many numbers just in case. Tourists shouldn't have to memorize, and recall, new numbers in an emergency.
- wink 1y agoHello operator, gimme the number for nine one one!
- thejazzman 1y agohttps://amphetamem.es/meme?id=the-simpsons_02_07_335×tamp=0%3A16%3A39.602&text=Hello%2C+operator%3F%0AGive+me+the+number+for+911.&dimensions=1440x1080&series=The+Simpsons&season=2&episodeNumber=7&episodeTitle=Bart+vs&at=%2Fthe-simpsons%2F02%2F07%2F0-16-39-602 https://amphetamem.es/meme?id=the-simpsons_02_07_335×ta...
- cameldrv 1y agoThe only problem is that at least in Germany, there are two numbers, 110 for the police, and 112 for fire/ambulance.
- eqvinox 1y agohttps://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/112 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/112 As siblings have commented, 112 and 911 are in the GSM standard. On landlines, only 112 will work in most EU countries (and even that is an EU achievement; e.g. in Switzerland 112 is inconsistent)
- alexpotato 1y agoThis is probably the case now as my original post was referring to a situation about 20 years ago (should have clarified)
- KingOfCoders 1y ago110 (Police), 112 (Ambulance, Fire Department) in Germany.
- bluGill 1y agoWhy are there two different numbers? When there is an emergency you want people to always do the right thing. Guessing the wrong number to call is not the right thing, and worse 2 numbers means there is great chance you didn't memorize either. This is well studied in human factors. Besides, anytime the other two are involved the police need to respond too - when there is a fire or medical emergency whoever can get that first can often be very helpful even if they are mostly for a different job. As such this separation seems wrong.
- tpm 1y ago> anytime the other two are involved the police need to respond too No. When your partner has an urgent medical issue, you call the ambulance, not the police.
- bluGill 1y agoYou want whoever is time closest to respond as well. While the ambulance is better, the police should have first aid training and a good sized first aid kit. When seconds are counting you are better off with someone partially trained who can get there fast over someone better trained who takes longer.
- dragonwriter 1y ago> You want whoever is time closest to respond as well. If you require the police to respond to all medical emergencies, then you have to fund the police at a level which allows them to do that, often at the expense of funding the people who actually should be responding to a medical emergency. Taking the attitude that the police must respond to all emergency calls even if the only indication of what capacities are needed are fire and/or ambulance services results in a distortion of local funding which makes emergency response worse (it also results in the police presence itself making the response to other things worse in cases where they were not needed, even considering the resources actually available at the time, without considering the effect of response policy on resource allocation -- police are not always neutral-to-beneficial.) The fact that it is a common rule in the US does not make it right. The US is very bad, compared to other developed countries, at lots of things.