PSAP eCall and NG-eCall: Automatic Vehicle Emergency Data

Overview#

A vehicle strikes a central reservation on a motorway at 4:15 a.m. on a section with no witnesses. The car's airbag deploys, the occupant is unconscious, and no one calls 999. Thirty seconds later, the vehicle's eCall system activates automatically. The PSAP receives the vehicle's GPS position, the number of occupants, the activation type, the vehicle identification number, and the direction of travel. Dispatchers know exactly where the vehicle is before the first 112 call ever comes in.

The PSAP eCall and NG-eCall module ingests, decodes, and surfaces Minimum Set of Data (MSD) packets from EU-mandated vehicular emergency call systems directly into the PSAP dispatch workflow. EN 15722/ISO 29283 eCall and ETSI TS 103 479 NG-eCall data are parsed on arrival, stored in the tenant-scoped call record, published as an AVL observation so the vehicle appears on the dispatcher's Common Operating Picture, and linked to a PSAP incident that is raised automatically and flagged for dispatcher review. No voice call is required for a dispatch to begin.

Key Features#

• EN 15722 / ISO 29283 MSD Decoding: The 140-byte fixed-format Packed Encoding Rules (PER) layout of the eCall Minimum Set of Data is decoded without a heavyweight ASN.1 library dependency, extracting vehicle type, fuel type, occupant count, activation type, crash severity, vehicle position, and heading directly from the binary record.
• NG-eCall Additional Data Set Support: The NG-eCall Additional Data Set extensions specified in ETSI TS 103 479 are parsed from gateway JSON payloads, providing richer data including road type, post-crash movement, seat belt status, and crash pulse severity when the vehicle IVS supports NG-eCall.
• Automatic PSAP Incident Creation: Every eCall MSD ingest creates a PSAP incident in the tenant's incident registry, with the vehicle position, crash severity, occupant count, and VIN pre-populated. The incident is flagged for dispatcher review so no automatic eCall is silently processed without operator awareness.
• AVL Position Publication: The vehicle's GPS coordinates from the MSD are published as an AVL position observation using the platform's standard observation model, so the crashed vehicle appears as a tracked entity on the dispatcher console map alongside field units and other mobile resources.
• Live Map Integration on Common Operating Picture: The AVL observation makes the vehicle visible on the PSAP Common Operating Picture immediately on ingest, so the dispatcher sees the incident location on the map before reviewing the incident record.
• Crash Severity Classification: eCall activations are classified as automatic, manual, or test, with crash severity derived from the MSD crash pulse data where available, enabling the dispatcher to prioritise the eCall incident against other concurrent events.
• Tenant Isolation and Audit Trail: Every eCall ingest is scoped to the receiving PSAP organisation. Organisation ID is enforced at insert and query, and an interoperability audit event is written on every ingest with the vehicle identifier, activation type, and processing timestamp.
• VIN and MMSI Identification: Vehicles are identified by VIN for road vehicles and by MMSI for maritime vessels sending automated distress notifications, providing cross-domain identification for hybrid island and coastal PSAP environments.

Use Cases#

• Unwitnessed Motorway Collision: A vehicle crashes in the early hours with no witnesses. The eCall system activates automatically, and the PSAP receives the vehicle's position and crash data before any caller contacts the centre. Dispatch begins without waiting for a voice call.
• Motorway Pile-Up Triage: Multiple vehicles transmit eCalls within seconds of a chain collision. Each MSD is ingested separately with its own position and occupant count, giving the PSAP a geospatial picture of the extent of the incident before field units arrive.
• Tunnel Incident Without Phone Coverage: A vehicle crashes inside a road tunnel where mobile coverage for voice calls is poor. The eCall channel, operating over a dedicated 112 data path with improved penetration, delivers the MSD even when the caller cannot speak or reach an operator directly.
• Manual Emergency Activation: A driver involved in a medical emergency presses the SOS button in their vehicle. The manual eCall activation is distinguished from an airbag-triggered automatic activation in the MSD, so the dispatcher understands they are dealing with a self-reported emergency rather than an algorithmic detection.
• NG-eCall Enhanced Data: A modern vehicle transmits NG-eCall data including road category, occupant restraint status, and estimated crash severity. The dispatcher receives richer pre-arrival information that informs the level of trauma resources dispatched before any voice contact.

Integration#

The eCall ingest endpoint connects to the PSAP telephony infrastructure for call establishment and carrier delivery of the MSD payload. The AVL publication component feeds the platform's vehicle tracking layer, making eCall incidents visible on the PSAP Common Operating Picture alongside all other tracked resources. The auto-created incident is routed into the standard PSAP incident management workflow, so dispatchers manage eCall incidents through the same console they use for telephony-originated calls. Interoperability audit records are published to the platform audit trail, and the VIN is available for cross-reference with vehicle registry lookups where DVLA or national vehicle authority integration is configured.

Open Standards#

• EN 15722:2015 / ISO 29283 (eCall MSD): The Minimum Set of Data byte layout follows the 140-byte PER encoding defined in European Standard EN 15722:2015 and its ISO publication as ISO 29283, including the fixed-offset fields for activation type, message identifier, vehicle type, test call flag, position (latitude/longitude), direction of travel, vehicle identification number, occupant count, optional fuel type, and crash severity indicators.
• ETSI TS 103 479 (NG-eCall Additional Data Set): NG-eCall extended data, carried as the Additional Data Set alongside the MSD, is parsed per ETSI TS 103 479 to extract road class, occupant restraint status, post-crash movement, and crash pulse severity from network elements that pre-decode the IVS payload into structured JSON.
• ETSI EN 301 040 (eCall / PSAP Interface): The PSAP-side interface for receiving eCall sessions and MSD payloads follows ETSI EN 301 040, which governs the interaction between the In-Vehicle System and the PSAP over the 112 emergency call path.
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 305/2013 and Regulation (EU) 2015/758: The module is designed for compliance with the EU regulatory framework mandating eCall fitment in new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles from 31 March 2018, and the IVS and PSAP interface specifications associated with those regulations.
• ITU-R M.1371 (AIS/MMSI): For maritime vessel emergency data, the MMSI-based vessel identification from the AIS standard is supported as an alternative to VIN, enabling the same ingest pipeline to handle maritime automated distress notifications alongside road vehicle eCalls.
• GeoJSON (RFC 7946) / WGS 84: Vehicle positions extracted from the MSD are published as WGS 84 decimal-degree coordinates in GeoJSON Point format, compatible with the PSAP mapping layer and any downstream geospatial consumer.
• NENA i3 / NG9-1-1 (NENA-STA-010.3): eCall-originated incidents are created within the NG9-1-1 i3 incident framework with typed audit actions for ingest and dispatch, ensuring eCall data is handled with the same evidentiary rigour as telephony-originated emergency calls.
• ISO 8601 / RFC 3339: All eCall event timestamps, including MSD reception, incident creation, and AVL observation publication times, are recorded in ISO 8601 UTC format for unambiguous post-incident reconstruction and multi-agency coordination.

Last Reviewed: 2026-07-28 Last Updated: 2026-07-28