«Help, my faucet is broken»
Police in Japan furious over 911 call abuse
1.9 million calls were made to the 110 emergency number in Japan last year. According to the police, around 20 percent of all phone calls were not about an emergency. On the “Day of Number 110”, the police mention two particularly curious cases.
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The police in Japan are angry. The emergency call is too often misused.
On “Number 110 Day”, the Japanese police are calling on the population to correctly use the police emergency number of the same name. It happens again and again that people dial this number even though there is no urgent need for it, the Japanese television broadcaster NHK reported on Monday.
In order to raise awareness of the proper use of the emergency number, the 10.1. declared as “Day of the Number 110”.
“There is no water coming out of the tap”
According to the police authority, around 1.9 million calls were made to the emergency number 110 last year, with around 20 percent of them not being a real emergency.
These included calls such as “Help, there is no water coming out of the tap” or “I would like to know how I can renew my driver’s license”. If you have any problems or concerns, ask the police to call the advice number #9110.
Emergency number 144 in Switzerland
There is also a 144 emergency number day in Switzerland. It takes place every year on April 14th.
The emergency number 144 was introduced in all cantons of Switzerland in 1999 – before that, there were regional emergency numbers for hospitals and rescue services in many places, as the Basel-Stadt rescue team explained. Today, around 650,000 144 calls were received by the medical emergency call centers. They coordinate and dispatch the almost 100 rescue services at 140 bases. (SDA/nad)