I didn't know about 112 did you?

[AnnM1]

The following information was verified by the Dorset Police but it is useful advice where ever you live.

The number 112 does work from a mobile.

This actually happened to a young college student. This story takes place over the Christmas/New Year's holiday break, but could happen at any time of the year, day or night.

At about 1pm in the afternoon the young lady was driving alone to visit a friend when an UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put its lights on. She had always been instructed by her parents never to pull over to the side of the road for an unmarked car, but rather wait until they arrived at a Service Station, etc. The young lady, taking her parents advice and telephoned 112 from her mobile phone.

This connected her to a police dispatcher. She told the dispatcher that there was an unmarked police car with a flashing blue light on its rooftop behind her and that she would not pull over right away but wait until she was in a service station or busy area.

The dispatcher checked to see if there was a police car in the area and there wasn't. She was told to keep driving, remain calm and that a back-up was already on the way.

Ten minutes later 4 police cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her. One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind. They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground ..... .....the man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes.

I never knew the following bit of advice, but especially for a woman alone in a car you do not have to pull over for an UNMARKED car. Apparently police have to respect your rights to keep going to a 'safe' place. You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them (for example put on your hazard lights) or call 122 like the student did.

Too bad the mobile phone companies don't give you this information.

So now it's your turn to let all your friends know about 112 (this is an emergency number on your mobile that takes you straight to the police because 999 does not work if you have no signal).

As far as I am aware, 112 uses a system called triangulation so they can also pinpoint exactly where you are phoning from.

This is good information - please pass it on to all your friends, both male and female, but especially females.

Ann

 

[Soozeeg]

This is a mixture of truth and urban legend. The number 112 will apparently connect you to the emergency services in some instances (not all). The story about the girl is a bit of an urban myth, there are lots of different variations of it (I've had a few via email in the past year or two).

There is a website www.snopes.com that will tell you whether or not something like this, or indeed various computer viruses, or other so-called emergencies, are truth or hoax.

But the advice about not stopping for someone if you're not sure about their identity is reasonable......either pull over, preferably somewhere populated, lock your doors, keep windows closed and phone the police, or drive to the nearest police station or garage, e.g.

 

[Surfer]

It is a pity that peole do n ot check on the validity of their info before posting it on a forum as some people may believe it is true. It is False! See http://www.snopes.com/science/mobile.asp

 

[LMH]

If you dial 112 from a mobile, it will certainly connect you to the emergency services.

Lisa

 

[BigAl1]

I believe that by using 112 gives the emmergency services opportunity to track the location of the phone.

Also it is becomming a Euroopean standard.

Al

 

[ScouseIan]

112 is exactly the same as 999. Its no magic number.

They go through to the same place.

Its because other countries used 112 in the past.

If you think about it on the old dial phones, 999 is the number that is going to take the longest to get through because it takes the longest for each digit to dial. Each nine clicks all the way around the dial. What were they thinking of?

As for the provenance of the story. Hmmmmm

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

"If you think about it on the old dial phones, 999 is the number that is going to take the longest to get through because it takes the longest for each digit to dial. Each nine clicks all the way around the dial. What were they thinking of?"

Ian I seem to remember being told many many years ago that the reason the emergency no was 999 was something to do with the old GPO red box phones with A and B buttons you had to put money in first and then if some one answered you had to press A to get connected or B to get you money back any of the dial numbers from 1 to 8 (no 0 numbers in those days) required money to be put in the slot before the call could be connected.

however dialing 9 circumvented the need for cash and gave you a free call, the call went through because no other phone numbers started with 9 in order to reduce miss dials the number was set at 999 because this was the easy'est number to remember.

 

[machighlander]

correct colin, i also remember the times we used a lollypop stick to push into the coin slot when ye pressed button B, this then released a handful of the new 2 pence pieces into the tray, yeeha, corner shop here we come for a lucky tattie.

 

[Sproket]

This site gives you information about 112 & why its used

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/112/index_en.htm
Sproket.

 

[RogerP]

as most have already stated 112 is a european wide emeregency number and has been adopted by all the major mobile phone manufacturers as a standard.

Partly this is also to do with dialling 999 from a mobile on some networks it used to be chargeable (not a lot of people know that) as 112 is the standard this is not charged - in recent times 999 has also been classed as non chargeable.

Some other things of note , when dialling either 112 or 999 your phone will boost its signal in order to get the best possible conneciton. Additionally most phones also have a residual power boost , even when you think the battery is totally dead , dialling 112/999 will unlock some reserve power.

Finally , dont know about this story but there was a guy in the Midlands a few years ago who fitted blue lights to his car and pulled people over. He was a bit loopy and was acting (he claimed) as a community officer to help the police. He had some beef about speeding and the polices' lack of presence in his area when it mattered.