Some 40 mln emergency calls baseless: Ministry

ANKARA

Over 59 million emergency calls have been made to 112, Türkiye’s emergency line like the U.S.’ 911, across the country since the beginning of the year, but some 40 million of them were baseless, Interior Ministry has said.

Issuing a statement about the new “112 Call Centers” in all 81 provinces, the ministry said on Aug. 1, “The centers are in service 24/7.”

According to the ministry, these centers have received some 59.1 million emergency calls in the first seven months of the year.

“However, some 40.7 million of these calls were baseless.”

The statement said more than 18.3 million of the emergency calls were registered “real,” and help were given immediately.

There is also another emergency line called “Burdenless 112,” where deaf people can make a video call and communicate with 112 officials with sign language.

“Some 1,600 citizens called Burdenless 112 during the mentioned period,” the statement said.

One other statistic the ministry shared was about the “e-call system,” which allows the 112 officials to get in touch with the electronic systems of the vehicles in case of traffic accidents, in which the driver or the passengers lie unconscious.

The system enables officials to get data about the location of the vehicles.

“Between Jan. 1 and July 25, 112 officials intervened in more than 44,000 incidents with the help of the e-call system,” the ministry added.