11 February 2022

11 February is the European Day celebrating 112.

In Italy, the EU single emergency number is currently active in 11 Regions (Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, Sicily and the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano), with 15 single response centres (Centrali Uniche di Risposta – CUR) that guarantee coverage of 65% of the Italian population, equal to about 35 million inhabitants.

The single EU emergency number allows each citizen, by dialling 112, to request the type of assistance they need (medical, police, fire and sea rescue). The call is collected by a single response centre (Centrale Unica di Risposta – CUR) which ascertains its authenticity and forwards it, together with the caller's location data and information on the type of emergency, to the relevant operations room for immediate intervention. Prescribed by European legislation and implemented by national legislation, the single EU number has several strengths.

First of all, free access with a single number to all emergency services with caller location and the guarantee of a multilingual service that allows calls to be answered in the most widely spoken languages.

The single response centres also perform an important filtering action of 'improper' (non-emergency) calls, which ensures that rescue agencies receive only those requests that require their intervention.

The emergency call is normally answered within five seconds, and if contact with the centre fails for any reason, the user is immediately called back.

In 2021, the single response centres operating in the territory handled almost 19 million calls, ensuring that emergency calls directly generated by cars in the event of a car accident are also received, thanks to the e-call system. Last year, about 75,000 calls were handled in this way.

The single EU emergency number ensures access to the service for deaf citizens. In fact, "112 Sordi" (112 Deaf) has been operational since summer 2021, allowing citizens with this disability to access the emergency reporting service through a special system in line with ad-hoc European directives. Since its activation to date, the service has received approximately 530 calls.