It’s late at night in the middle of nowhere when the driver of an SUV falls asleep, causing the vehicle to spin out of control and crash into a tree. The driver gets out in complete confusion, the passenger, who is injured, tries in vain to open the door and remains trapped. He finally loses consciousness. The driver calls the three-digit numbers 100 and 166, to the Police and EKAV respectively, to request their assistance, but when the man at the call center asks him “where exactly were you?”, he cannot answer. The driver is confused and the passenger cannot speak.

In May 2016, viewers of the show “Grooms for Sale” at the “Radio City” cinema in Thessaloniki saw Kostas Koklas suffer a heart attack on stage. The popular actor asked his friends to take him to the hospital immediately as he was experiencing severe chest pains. The actor was taken to “Agios Pavlos” hospital. As the doctors told him “if the ambulance was a little late, it would be too late”.

Every day the three-digit numbers 100 and 166 are estimated to receive 18,000 phone calls from citizens in need of immediate police (10,000 calls) or medical assistance (8,000). Once the caller’s location is located – something relatively easy if he is within an urban fabric, but difficult or very difficult if he is outside the city – the process for dispatching an ambulance or Police patrol car begins. In such cases, every minute can count. With this in mind and with a personal experience as a starting point, the team of the Greek start-up CNOS and the French partner NEOMA (producer of the app), decided to make available “Safe in Greece (SiG)”, a free notification application of 100 and 166 for the exact location of whoever is calling for help. At the same time, the application is estimated to be able to work – according to its creators – as an innovative system for digitizing immediate action services, so that police cars and ambulances can reach those who need them more quickly.

As transportation engineer Notis Paraskevopoulos, CNOS project manager, explains to APE-MBE, who cites the above call statistics and the story with Mr. Koklas, this is a system of critical importance, for which the Greek taxpayer “does not will not pay a single euro”, since its financing will be done through public and private sector cooperation, with sponsorships from recognized organizations, which have already been secured. The application works simply: as soon as a user needs help, he presses the appropriate button (panic button). In case he needs medical help, he presses the “Ambulance” button, in which case a call is made to 166, and if what he needs is police protection, he presses the “Police” button, in which case the device calls 100.

Save time up to 30%

There are also cases in which the person calling for help is unable to speak to the ELAS operator. For these cases, there are the following special call buttons: Burglar, Under Attack, Domestic Violence. In all cases, the operator sees the exact location of the people on the map at the same time and the departure of an ambulance or police car is much faster. “Although how quickly a vehicle will reach its destination depends on the distance, I have estimated that using the app the time it takes for an ambulance or patrol car to arrive at the scene of the call is reduced by 10% to 30%” he adds.

According to Mr. Paraskevopoulos, in addition to his scientific status as a transport expert, road safety issues are of particular concern to him and his son for personal reasons. In 2004, his son’s 22-year-old best friend, Panos Mylonas, died in a car accident. The two friends left in separate cars from Athens to Patras where they were studying, but one of them never arrived. Since then, road safety issues have become even more important for the transport experts father and son Paraskevopoulos, one of the founding members of the “Panos Mylonas” institute.

As part of this initiative, ELAS, EKAV, as well as other state structures, are also provided free of charge with the possibility of sending Push Notifications (which do not have the “gravity” of a 112 message, but can be very useful, e.g. with messages like “attention to those heading to Malacca, there is dense fog”). In addition, through the sponsorships that have been secured, the necessary computers will be provided, so that all ELAS-EKAB call center jobs in the Region (“today many of them work only with paper and pen”, according to Mr. Paraskevopoulos), can see on a computer screen the exact location of the caller. Tablets will also be provided – among other things – for the approximately 2000 – according to Mr. Paraskevopoulos – patrol cars and ambulances in the country, so that the passengers can guide the driver on the most suitable route, to reach their destination as soon as possible, and electronic computers for the digitization of ELAS and EKAV regional services.

“We are already in contact with the relevant ministries of Health, Civil Protection and Digital Governance, in order to receive the “green light”. Once the state gives the “green light”, the application can be made available to citizens within 30-45 days” argued Mr. Paraskevopoulos and added that the Safe in Greece (SiG) application, which will be widely of use and without monetary consideration and will aim to promote road safety and protect human life is under the auspices of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.