Plan to make 191 national emergency number

[webfact]

Plan to make 191 national emergency number
Usanee Mongkolporn
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), in a joint project with the Royal Thai Police, is planning to promote 191 as the national emergency number.

"It is the government's plan to put all emergency call centres under one number so people will only need to remember these three digits," NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said.

NBTC met with police and government representatives to discuss the plan on Monday.

At present, there are some 30 emergency numbers operated by several government agencies and private organisations.

Takorn said NBTC will have King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) conduct a study on the plan before the results are submitted to the Cabinet for approval. A budget of Bt300 million has been earmarked for the study.

KMITL had previously studied the possibility of the 112 as an emergency number, but the project was cancelled.

Under the new plan, people in an emergency situation can call 191, and the operator will transfer the call to the agency responsible for attending to the case.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Plan-to-make-191-national-emergency-number-30260572.html

-- The Nation 2015-05-21

[MESmith]

I thought the emergency number was 1112

[Emster23]

How about 911, which is used in many countries? Different calendar or something? "A budget of Bt300 million has been earmarked for the study." boy I'd like to get a bit of that gravy train..... whoever approves this amount ought to be brought up on same charges as Ms Yingluck

[chainarong]

It is 2015 and you tell me that you have no central control for emergencies and 30 emergency numbers and agencies yet you squander money on programs that in the context of this matter are irrelevant like H/S Rail , Lotto costs and buying military hard-wear from China , you sure have the priorities worked out.

Edited May 21, 2015 by chainarong

[Lupatria]

Great idea! Change it more often!

It helps to spike the lottery ticket sales and could be used as an anti Alzheimer training in a country with aging population.

[Classic Ray]

112 is the international emergency number throughout Europe, in addition to national emergency numbers such as 999 in the UK. I would like to see 112 (and possibly 911) activated as an emergency number in Thailand even if they also decide to activate 191. This would mean that tourists and other European visitors would already know an emergency number to use.

Most of the work on this has already been done in Europe, only some small enquiries remain to be done in Thailand with the regulator and the telcos, so I have no idea how they will manage to spend 300 million baht on the study.

[madmitch]

300 million baht for a study into something that most civilised countries already have in place?

Amazing Thailand.

[Kalbo]

All is fine and good and well having an emergency telephone number as described above, but have the powers-that-be actually considered that some people may

actually phone the number ?

[jonclark]

All is fine and good and well having an emergency telephone number as described above, but have the powers-that-be actually considered that some people may

actually phone the number ?

More to the point have they considered if anyone will actually be bothered to answer the calls?

[JAG]

Well they will be far too busy to answer the calls, they will be sharing out the B300,000,000!

[Lupatria]

Don't call KMITL - they are busy with a month long celebration with cocktails, chocolate fountain and karaoke.

[kanderson]

I thought the emergency number was 1112

too funny,

I got a big laugh as I often need a pizza and salad. Also the crispy crunchy wings are tasty.

For those who don't know 1112 is pizza company with delivery.

Also a 1150 gets KFC delivery.

[scorecard]

Great idea! Change it more often!

It helps to spike the lottery ticket sales and could be used as an anti Alzheimer training in a country with aging population.

Here's another twist, one of my MBA students changes his name, his mobile number and his e-mail address frequently.

He never tells anybody he has done the changes, all causing total confusion.

Why does he do it? A few years back a revered monk told him to do this or he would have severe bad luck for the rest of his life.

[scorecard]

All is fine and good and well having an emergency telephone number as described above, but have the powers-that-be actually considered that some people may

actually phone the number ?

Well no doubt there will be the usual:

- Where can I buy some good sausages?

- What's the average price for tomatoes?

- What do dogs like to eat?

- What's the phone number of my local Honda dealer?

etc.

There was a long list of these questions published maybe a year back, I think from UK, some very quite funny.

[Oziex1]

when I read stories of an old woman being raped at knife point and the cops not giving a damn, a big wig parking his car across the driveway of the fire station blocking the fire tenders in, leaving them unable to get to an emergency situation.

Does it matter if you call emergency services here, if response is not going to be immediate or effective.

[Sviss Geez]

How about 911, which is used in many countries? Different calendar or something? "A budget of Bt300 million has been earmarked for the study." boy I'd like to get a bit of that gravy train..... whoever approves this amount ought to be brought up on same charges as Ms Yingluck

Why should they adopt the US number which is different to most other countries outside the Americas? Does the US operate on a different calendar?

/

[Beng]

How about 911, which is used in many countries? Different calendar or something? "A budget of Bt300 million has been earmarked for the study." boy I'd like to get a bit of that gravy train..... whoever approves this amount ought to be brought up on same charges as Ms Yingluck

[Beng]

Waste of money and the police only come out to help people who pay for one of those silly red boxes anyways.

[Beng]

How about coming up with a plan how to save money that can be invested to upgrade the education system ?

[FangFerang]

Americas it's 911, S Korea it's 991, and in Thailand it's

555

[cracker1]

As Thailand is about to sign up to the ASEAN group it may be sensible for all participating Countries to use the same Emergency

number ?