By: Blonde One
This blog post about sending an emergency text message is worth repeating so forgive me if you’ve heard it before. Rest assured you will hear it again in the future too!
On our recent navigation workshop, I was reminded of a service that I was introduced to some time ago on a DofE managers’ training day. We had a session on safety on the hills and ran through various scenarios to keep us up to date on practices and procedures. There were a few surprised faces when we were told that to get help in a remote area you must dial 999 and ask for the police even of you know that an air rescue will be required. The other surprise was this one:
By logging onto www.emergencysms.org.uk you can register your phone so that you can send a text to the 999 emergency services from a variety of mobile phone networks even if you’re not registered with them. This service is ideal for the deaf, hard of hearing and speech impaired, but is also crucial for us when we’re out in remote areas with poor mobile signal. Sometimes a text will send even when you can’t connect to make a voice call. It’s another way to make sure you’re covered when you’re out and about so I recommend that you get your phone registered before you need the service.
I suppose I should comment, even though I’m sure it’s unnecessary with our fabulous readers, that this service is to be treated in the same way as ringing 999 normally. Please only use it in an emergency.
If you have GPS mapping you would also be able to send the emergency services your exact OS grid reference which would be hugely useful from a remote location. Make sure you know how to find this with your GPS. You can of course do the same thing using your OS map manually, making sure you have the two letters correct that precede the numbers.
You are quite right of course Conrad or you should be able to give a grid reference from a map (even a 4-figure reference would help). As you know we Blondes prefer paper for when we are out and about but OS Locate (free) https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/os-locate is a great tool for an instant grid reference in an emergency.
Thanks for that tip.
Have just registered without any problem.
Excellent we know from experience on Dartmoor (not emergency) that text messages can often get through when phone calls can’t.
Hi Blonde 2
I thought I’d just throw in the information I got at a first aid training session. We were told that from a mobile it was better to use 112 instead of 999 because the signal was better. I’ve Googled it and found this:
What happens when you call 112?
When you call 112 you access the emergency services in the same way as 999.
112 will work across Europe but not in every country world-wide so do always check when travelling how to access the emergency services*. When dialling 112 from a mobile it will over-ride the need to enter a PIN code, making it possible to use anyone’s phone. It will search other networks for a signal and prioritise the call if the network is busy. It is also possible to register for a text service so that if needed you can text the emergency services. The video below has some very useful advice about using 112 and calling the emergency services in remote areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XPZv_8dABfU
I have actually used 112 in an emergency situation (for a child, not myself) and it did indeed work.
Cheers! Keep up the good information network! B2’s GM