The reason that “999” was chosen for emergencies ( and “0” for the operator) in the UK was all down with the design of the early pay-phones. With these you had to insert money in a slot before you could make a call. Of course you did not want a situation where you were unable to make an emergency call (or call the operator) if you had no change. To overcome this the telephone dials were designed with a set of contacts which operated when you dialled “9” or “0”. These two numbers, of course, are at the furthest travel of the dial. The operation of these contacts bypassed the pay-phone mechanism and so enabled you to make a call with having to insert any money.
I don’t quite follow the ‘dubious’ attachment to your final comment. In Britain, either number works from any phone. In Europe, 112 is standard.
In China, it’s 119, the reverse of America’s.
In China, emergency services call you!
In Akron, OH, 311 gets you the municipal non-emergency information line.
“Who do I complain to about my neighbor’s overgrown grass?”
311 can tell you.
Except they’re apparently never in, it seems to just ring and ring and ring.
Do you have the 112 too? This number is posted here in all public phones (and I also noticed it on some posts/documents displaying emergency number) as the “european emergeny number”.
I often wondered to whom I would get in touch with if I dialed it (in Frace, you don’t use the same number for the police, the firemen and the medical emerencies), but never did so, in order not to disturb an actual emergency call center.
I’m wondering in which european countries it exists, who you call eactly when you dial it, do they speak various languages (*) ?
(*) That would make sense for an “european” number, I assume the idea is that if you find yourself in a foreign country, you don’t have to find first the local emergency number, but can use this one instead. But it would make more sense if they were able to answer in several languages.
I se several peole had already mentioned it. I should have read the whole thread, as usual. My questions still stand.
Besides, since it seems to be more well-knownin the UK than in France do people actually use it instead of the 999 already mentionned?
That there would be the New Zealand emergency number. 
Sorry, I was slightly misleading there. 999 is still the standard number for the UK - 112 also does work, but it isn’t widely publicised. I guess this has various advantages - including European mobiles with 112 programmed into them as an emergency number functioning properly.
I’m thinking of a skit in some comedy show, the name escapes me.
“GET HELP!”
“CALL 911!”
“What’s the number for 911?”
(Kelly Bundy perhaps?)
And the NZ emergency number is ‘111’ for much the same reason the UK’s is ‘999’. It’s the farthest number, excluding ‘0’, from the stop on a rotary phone.
For some unkown reason NZ used/uses a rotary dial with the numbers reversed from all other dials so they go 0,1,2…8,9. When I started work, it was generally said to be to avoid licensing payments to whoever owned the 0, 9…2, 1 style rights. I’ve always doubted that, but never heard the real reason.
Due to the popularity of the TV programme ‘911’ several years ago, the phone company has also introduced 911 as a number for the same service.
KF
112 is the European emergency number and is supposed to add to the existing numbers already in place in each country as opposed to replacing them (e.g. 999 in UK/Ireland and in France 17 (police emergency), 18 (fire department), etc… ).
If you dial 112 you get in touch with a ‘front-office’ who will direct you to the proper service.
Imagine in the USA having a different emeregency number for each state!
So in France, 112 calls at border regions may be answered in English, German or Spanish.
This site explains
Hmmm… is there any logic whatsoever for 066 as here in Mexico? To be honest I don’t know if that’s all Mexico or just where I’m at now…
I remember when 911 was first introduced in my town. It was in 1989. Apparently it had already been around in most of the country, but before that we actually had to dial a regular 7 digit number for emergencies. When 911 started, there was a big wave of education about when to and when to not dial 911. It became a challenge for my classmates to try to get away with it, often by staking out a payphone where they could dial it and then run away. My mom bought into this education, and to this day keeps debating whether her emergency justifies calling 911 or not, as if there’s a special jail cell in our town for reserved for people who waste operators’ time with things like “my son just cut open his arm and he’s bleeding all over everything”
I’ve personally dialed 911 once, from a cell phone when I came home after midnight and found my front door open, knowing that nobody else was SUPPOSED to be home. That was a mystery that was not solved, although at least I wasn’t being ambushed or robbed.
This was talked about in Australia for the very same reason, though I’m uncertain whether they actually ended up doing it or not. The TV show had a little screen and voice-over at the start to remind idiots that the Australian emergency number is ‘000’.
‘112’ also works in Australia these days, simply because it is programmed into so many mobile telephones to be used even if the phone has no SIM card in it, or is password-locked, etc. It was said to be the “international” emergency number - I didn’t realise it was specifically European. It works here in any event.
When my mobile phone is touched it gives a little “SOS?” prompt. If you were to hit the “yes” button you’d be connected to 112, hitting “no” gives you a prompt for the password. So calling emergency services from my mobile requires pressing only 2 buttons.