IF you have an emergency in your car or van in the future, you won’t need to call the emergency services.

Your vehicle will do it for you.

Following a Euro MP vote, all new cars and vans will be equipped with an eCall emergency device.

The eCall emergency device will automatically dial the 112 emergency number in the event of an accident, sending details of the accident to emergency services and dramatically decreasing response times.

The European Parliament’s negotiator and S&D Euro MP, Olga Sehnalova said:

“The reduction of the number of deaths on European roads has always been a priority for the European Parliament, being mentioned on several occasions in many resolutions. Today’s vote will help the EU meet this objective.

“The quicker response from the emergency services to accidents on roads across Europe could save about 2,500 lives in the EU every year. The severity of injuries will also be considerably reduced in tens of thousands of cases.

“We ensured that the vehicles equipped with 112 public eCall are not traceable and are not subject to constant tracking. In fact, the device will upgrade the data constantly and keep the minimum information required to handle the emergency calls.”

S&D Group spokeswoman for the internal market and consumer protection, Evelyne Gebhardt added:

“The S&D Group were the leading force in ensuring an EU-wide public eCall service based on the 112 emergency number, available free of charge to everyone.

“This represents a very important and concrete achievement for the safety of EU citizens.”