This is a question for Dopers who do not live in America. Are there emergency systems like “911” in your countries? What do you dial to call for help? Is 911 international??
I live in America, but I can tell you for a fact that 911 is not an international number. The emergency number in France is something like 99 or 999, IIRC. I imagine in most industrialized nations, emergency systems are similar to the U.S. But, since they have different phone numbers, it’s always a good idea to learn what it is if you’re going to be spending a significant amount of time in a foreign country.
In Norway there are three: 110 for the fire department, 112 for the police, and 113 to call an ambulance. I believe 112 is supposed to be a new European standard, which is to say you should be able to call 112 in any western European country and get some sort of emergency service. But don’t quote me on that. Check the phone book.
We don’t have a 911, though “Rescue - 911” with William Shatner was hilarious…
But there is an European (Union) emergency number - 112.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/civil/112_en.htm
I don’t know if it has been implemented in other non-EU states besides Iceland and Norway.
Damn! On the same page there was this link to this page:
International Emergency Telephone Numbers
I was just speaking to a friend of mine from England today, and in the course of the conversation it came up that in England its 999, not 911.
In the UK it is 999, although coastguard services are on a different number.
I recall being told on more than one occasion that 911 works in the UK too, but I’m not sure if this is true…anyone care to try?
I’ve just checked in the London telephone directory. The only numbers which work in the UK are 999, which has always been the number for the emergency services in the UK, and 112, which is the new EU standard number.
Coastguard, mountain rescue and cave rescue are all on the same number, but I think they are available throughout the country (e.g. I doubt the 999 operator in London would put me throught to mountain rescue).
I believe that all EU Member States are required to have 112 available for emergency services, but they are allowed to have a different local number as well.
Ireland 999 (all out emergency services are available from there), and 112 (the EU number)
Australia: 000
Canada uses 911.
The US used to be 999, but they changed it because on rotary phones it would take too long to dial 3 nines.
jbird, that reminds me of a skit that (i think it was SNL) did about the creation of 911. In their skit, the original number was something like 1-800-I-NEED-HELP or something. And everyone was dying before they finished dialing.
In Japan it’s 110 for police, and 119 for fire department, which also runs the ambulances.
So all the emergency numbers are 3-digit numbers that start with 1 or 9, with the exception of Australia? Is there a reason for this?
New Zealand uses 111.
If you ring 999 or 911 you get a recorded message advising you that 111 is the correct number.
When Emergency 911 was screned here several years ago there was a problem with people of limited mental ablity trying to use 911 untill the name was changed. So we got Emergency 111.
“Switchbox Susan won’t you give me a sign
I need a doctor get me nine-nine-nine…”
and then there’s 112 for Digital Mobiles in the land of Oz too. My phone lets me ring 911; 000 or 112. depends on what sorta mood I’m in!
Ok I may just be thinking this as the mother of a toddler but wouldn’t it be to easy for a baby who got a hold of a phone to dial 111 or 000? I have been known, on occasion, to hand Mr. Baby the phone to play with so he will give me 10 more minutes on the computer (Bad Mommy) and he does turn it on and hit the buttons, I usually keep an eye on him but if our emergency numbers were 3 numbers in a row I know he would eventually dial that. Was this a consideration in the US using 2 different numbers?
I think we have to realize that the emergency numbers were originally nominated for rotary phones. In the UK the number 9 is the number the longest distance away from the end of the dial, so I supose it is the hardest to dial by mistake. Having the same number three times is easy to remember and on a rotary phone unlikely to be done radomly.
Here in NZ the number 1 is the longest away (Why the difference, I don’t know) so this number is used).
The US used to be 999, but they changed it because on rotary phones it would take too long to dial 3 nines.
Explains why the US uses it’s number.