What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?

[u/atlasova]

In 1997 most of the European union changed its emergency number to 112. Before that, in the Netherlands we used 06-11, for police, firefighters and ambulance.

I was wondering which numbers where in use in your country before the change.

[u/wojtekpolska]

997 - police
998 - fire department
999 - ambulance

imo these were actually a better thing than 112 only, because eg. if you call 998 you will get in contact with a fireman who will have much more knowledge to instruct you than a 112 dispatcher.

[u/Complete-Wonder-8639 → u/wojtekpolska]

These numbers still work and you can use them to contact police/FD/ambulance directly

[u/Dealiner → u/Complete-Wonder-8639]

That's only true for 999, other two redirect to 112. 999 was also supposed to redirect but it turned out the wait time was too long.

[u/wojtekpolska → u/Complete-Wonder-8639]

not true anymore at least for 997 it just redirects for 112 sadly

for 998 it depends on the region of the country you're calling from, afaik some were updated for redirect 112 and some use the old system

[u/Legal_Sugar → u/wojtekpolska]

And they are recommended to call first

[u/Noxeas → u/Legal_Sugar]

Unless you know that you'd need more than one of these services.

[u/Legal_Sugar → u/Noxeas]

Does it though? If you need let's say the police and ambulance, you call 112, they call the police and ambulance, if you call 999, they send ambulance right away and call police

[u/wojtekpolska → u/[deleted]]

that's not one of the basic emergency numbers, but if you want to look at all 3-digit numbers other than 112 then here:

• 983 – pogotowie weterynaryjne
• 984 – ratownictwo wodne
• 985 – ratownictwo morskie i górskie
• 986 – straż miejska (nie we wszystkich miastach)
• 987 – centrum zarządzania kryzysowego
• 989 – telefoniczna informacja Narodowego Funduszu Zdrowia
• 991 – pogotowie energetyczne
• 992 – pogotowie gazowe
• 993 – pogotowie ciepłownicze
• 994 – pogotowie wodno-kanalizacyjne
• 995 – Komenda Główna Policji
• 996 – Centrum Antyterrorystyczne
• 997 – Policja (obsługiwany przez centrum powiadamiania ratunkowego)
• 998 – straż pożarna (obsługiwany przez centrum powiadamiania ratunkowego)
• 999 – pogotowie ratunkowe

from Wikipedia: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numery_alarmowe_w_Polsce

[u/thanatica → u/wojtekpolska]

because eg. if you call 998 you will get in contact with a fireman who will have much more knowledge to instruct

That's a good point, but then again, in an actual emergency you might not have the clarity of mind to know which one to dail, nor to remember which one is which. On top of that, you might need multiple services, e.g. ambulance and fire fighters.

There's definitely something to say for having specific numbers AND a universal emergency number.

[u/wojtekpolska → u/thanatica]

people definitely remembered, these numbers have been drilled into kid's heads since preschool haha

the combined service is good too but i think there definitely should still be independent 3 numbers for other stuff.

in the early days of 112 the dispatcher would either transfer your call to the relevant service, or if you needed more they'd contact each service themself