*EMERGENCY*

JP Liz V1

999

ChikiChiki

Remember one of the lads took my phone one day and called 999 saying I was stuck down a well and threw it back at me.

Was called back immediately by a ferocious Cork accent saying "We'll pick you up you little scumbag".

Felt bad for those seconds at the time (20 years ago).

That has stuck with me.

con747

Whichever my dying fingers can press quickest.

cbreeze

I was told on a first aid course that 112 would hunt for operators all over but that 999 would only patch in to the nearest team if it was available to answer.

Graces7

Sardonicat wrote: »

Well, I suppose when we were kids it was always 'dial 999' and it's just ingrained. I can NEVER remember 112. I don't think it's about being slow on the uptake, more about how you react in an emergency with the adrenaline pumping. In those circumstances it will be the number you've heard reeled off and repeated since you were small.

absolutely. Although I have thankfully rarely used it at all. Out here we have four emergency services; coastguard/medical evacuation as well as the usual three.. All via 999

anplaya27

Neither. I'm Deaf.

Montage of Feck

Tom Mann Centuria wrote: »

Do you suspect immigrant or traveller involvement?

Stray Azeri ballistic missile would be my guess.

Edgware

banie01 wrote: »

At last...

"Blast it with piss" is most definitely a viable option here!

Reminds me of grafitti on the wall of a pub in Cork.
"If you can piss this high Cork Fire Brigade needs you"

Edgware

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Remember one of the lads took my phone one day and called 999 saying I was stuck down a well and threw it back at me.

Was called back immediately by a ferocious Cork accent saying "We'll pick you up you little scumbag".

Felt bad for those seconds at the time (20 years ago).

That has stuck with me.

That Timmy is a real hero

440Hertz

999 isn’t going away anytime soon, but 112 is the more useful code.

The main thing is you can get though to the emergency services early on one number in Ireland and always have been.

If you compare our setup with say France, there was a whole list of two digit emergency numbers.

112 works in France but it’s, for some reason, the most resistant to implementing a single emergency number:

Instead, you’ve this complicated list:

15: Ambulance (for other urgent medical call-outs)
17: Police / Gendarmes
18: Fire brigade & also sort of the main port of call for health related emergencies.
114: Deaf / Non verbal - for SMS or Fax
115: Emergency Shelter
119: Reporting child abuse
191: Air rescue (Plane accident/disappearance)
196: Sea and lake rescue
197: Terror attacks/kidnapping hotline

There were plenty of other countries that has multiple, separate numbers for emergency services too. So you can see why 112 was really important across Europe. If you’re travelling around, you need to be able to communicate in an emergency without having to dig out a telephone directory and look up local codes.

It was the same with things like the international access code being changed to 00. Before that, you had a different code in every country, which was why mobiles had to adopt that + symbol at the start of numbers. Countries adopted 00 bit by bit from the early 70s right through to the late 1990s.

There’s now a range of 116 number being rolled out for emergency supports such as the Samaritans and equivalents are now on 116 123 (free)

Ireland and the U.K. were amongst the first places to begin using those harmonised codes and they make a whole lot of sense.

Peregrinus

Obligatory Simpson's moment: