More than 12.7 million calls at the emergency number 112 were registered in Romania last year, almost 1 million fewer than the year before, but less than half were real emergencies, local News.ro reported, quoting data from Special Telecommunications System (STS). A Bucharest resident called 112 more than 21,000 times in ten months.

Only 45.1% of the 112 calls registered last year were actual emergencies, and most of them were medical cases. Meanwhile, more than half of the 112 calls (54.9%) were not emergencies but various requests for information, calls made by mistake, pranks and abusive calls.

 “According to statistics, this means a daily average of over 18,000 non-urgent calls. Of these, 63% of calls are made involuntarily,” STS officials said.

In most cases, people end up calling 112 by mistake because they forget to lock their phones. Most non-urgent calls were recorded in Mures (68.1%) and Covsna, Vrancea, Gorj, Calarasi, and Arges (63.5%).

112 operators also have to deal with numerous repetitive calls. Thus, in the first ten months of 2018, a person in Bucharest called the emergency number 21,567 times. Meanwhile, someone from Iasi called 112 more than 18,500 times and a person in Neamt called the emergency number 18,390 times.

Non-urgent calls to the emergency number 112 seriously affect the work of the 112 operators, as it keeps them from answering real emergency calls. Those who call 112 without having a real emergency risk fines of RON 500.

newsroom@romania-insider.com

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