Emergency calls from UK mobile

[Chancer]

Now that NRJ have kindly taken away my service together with my hard earned I will have to live without a French mobile, even €1.50 per month for a LeClerc sim is beyond my present budget.

My phone is now always switched off but it does have a UK vodafone sim with a tenner or so of credit which will not be robbed from me (he says!).

In an emergency if I ring 112 from within France will I get through to the French emergency operator?

I have not tried it out for reasons that I hope I dont have to explain.

[Pickles]

[quote user="Chancer"]In an emergency if I ring 112 from within France will I get through to the French emergency operator?

[/quote]

Yes.

Regards

Pickles

[Cendrillon]

I understand that 112 is for use anywhere in Europe and that there will be an English speaking person to answer, certainly while I was in France Vodafone were sending me text messages telling me to ring 112 for emergencies . Of course, when you ring from a mobile they will not know the exact location or your whereabouts, so the more details you can give them then the quicker the response.

[Chancer]

Thanks for your responses.

If it true that it will be an English speaking operator then I would use the service as a real last resort preferring to crawl to a fixed phone. I understand that the operator will not be local and will have no knowledge of the area but unless thay are bi-lingual which I doubt I would be far better off talking direct to Samu, too much scope for errors of comunication and translation

I hope that this is not in fact the case but I still dont want to try the number to find out[blink]

P.S. I do appreciate that for someone on holiday an English speaking operator would be appreciated its just that on the few occasions that I have had to call Samu they have been really nasty situations and speed has been of the essence, if I were for instance to witness a really bad accident on the road I would want to be put straight through and could not live with myself if a delay were to cause further problems, perhaps €1.50 a month is not too much to pay in that scenario.

[Pickles]

[quote user="Chancer"]If it true that it will be an English speaking operator then I would use the service as a real last resort preferring to crawl to a fixed phone. I understand that the operator will not be local and will have no knowledge of the area but unless thay are bi-lingual which I doubt I would be far better off talking direct to Samu, too much scope for errors of comunication and translation

I hope that this is not in fact the case but I still dont want to try the number to find out[blink][/quote]

The emergency number from ANY mobile - UK, French, German, etc - in France and elsewhere is 112. In France you will be put through to a French operator who will probably speak English but if not will know enough to put you through immediately to someone who CAN speak English, (but probably again French mother tongue).

Regards

Pickles

[gosub]

112

[Chancer]

Thanks Les that has put my mind at rest [:)]

[andyh4]

As someone who has had to use 112 in anger, I can confirm that you will go through to a French person, but that they will rapidly transfer you to someone who speaks English if needed.  It is amazing how quickly you brain empties itself of every French word you ever knew when there is an emergency.

[Chancer]

I have used 15 (Samu) in anger on 4 occasions and whilst my French was at the time just adequate, the pain did make it difficult to think clearly, they never once tried to transfer me to someone else.

One time I called them after being discharged from hospital and suffering unbearable bladder pain, I had in fact misread the prescribed dose of a post operative medecine and had taken an overdose, the operator was trying to deal with me at the same time as someone screaming madly and drunkenly at them in French, I dont know if they were on another line or had accessed the locaux but the operatot told me to call back later and hung up on me! 3 minutes later the pain stopped and a wave of endorphin swept over me so I went back to bed glad that I had not misused the emergency service.

My original query was not because I wanted to speak English to an operator, quite the opposite in fact, I was concerned that by using a UK mobile phone I might get an English speaking operator (maybe at a call centre in Bangladesh[6]) and that my request would have to then be translated to Samu possibly involving a 3rd person.