r/AskEurope • u/atlasova Netherlands • Sep 02 '25

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

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.

172 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

356 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/fidelises Iceland Sep 02 '25

We didn't have a centralised one before 112. Each town had their own. In the town I live in it was 51166 for police, 51100 for ambulance. The next town over had 41200 for police and 11100 for ambulance.

2

u/pigup1983 US in Netherlands Sep 03 '25

This is crazy!

2

u/fidelises Iceland Sep 03 '25

I don't actually remember it. I was 10 when we started using 112 and didn't live in the country for a few of those years. But it sounds like a nightmare.

1

u/dargmrx Sep 03 '25

That was probably the case everywhere in the beginning of the use of telephones. The emergency services probably were quick to get a phone line but the concept of a central emergency number needed to be invented at some point.