The “eCall” system would use the 112 number to call the emergency services automatically, enabling them to reach crash scenes faster and thus save lives and reduce the severity of injuries.

‘Too many people die in accidents on Europe’s roads. The eCall system will help to improve road safety by enabling emergency services to locate and reach accident victims much faster. As a public service, eCall will be free of charge for all citizens, whatever car they drive and whatever its purchase price. The new rules will ensure that eCall works only as safety device. It will be illegal to use it to track a driver’s movements or to misuse location data, which must be sent only to the emergency services,’ said MEP Olga Sehnalova, a Czech member of the S&D group.

Under the agreed deal, the automatic call would give the emergency only a basic minimum data such as the class of vehicle, the type of fuel used, the time of the accident and the exact location.

MEPs also amended the draft law to ensure that data gathered by emergency centres or their service partners must not be transferred to third parties without explicit consent of the person concerned. Manufacturers will also have to ensure that the eCall technology design permits full and permanent deletion of data gathered.

The move has been greeted by the European Transport Safety Council. Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the ETSC, said: ‘Getting emergency services to the scene of a crash quickly is crucial to preventing deaths. So this technology will save lives. However, it’s regrettable that it will be several years before we see all new cars fitted with the system and that other vehicles aren’t covered by the legislation yet. These are missed opportunities to extend the safety benefits further, with little or no justification.

‘The European Parliament, and in particular the MEP responsible, Olga Sehnalová as well as the Italian presidency deserve credit for steering this legislation and reaching a deal, notably on the controversial issue of data protection. In the end a good compromise was reached to ensure the data cannot be misused.’

The agreement now needs to be formally approved by all EU member states and finally Parliament as a whole, probably in March 2015.

Separate legislation, already agreed by the European institutions, requires member states to put in place the infrastructure to handle eCalls.

In the following three years, the European Commission will assess whether eCall should be extended to other vehicles, such as buses, coaches or trucks, says the agreement text.