What3Words

In July, emergency services up and down the country pledged their support for the ‘ground-breaking’ technology which has been credited with saving thousands of lives across the UK with calls for the public to download the free location app – so they’re ready to give a what3words address in the event of an emergency. what3words has divided the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares. It has given each square a unique combination of three words - a what3words address. For example: ///tortoises.swarm.announce, will take you to a precise location on Ben Nevis where in February 2020 a group of hikers were rescued. The app is free to download for both iOS and Android and works offline – making it ideal for use in areas of the UK with an unreliable data connection. what3words can also be used via the online map at what3words.com. The technology is available in over 40 languages, including Welsh, and can be used anywhere in the world. After successfully piloting with a selection of forces in 2019, what3words is now used by over 80 per cent of UK emergency services. ‘Where’s the emergency?’ is one of the first questions asked when calling 999. But saying exactly where help is needed can be challenging. Services often can’t detect where you are automatically and dropped pins are difficult to explain over the phone. Landmark-based descriptions are prone to errors and GPS coordinates are long and difficult to communicate. At best, this is a

frustrating drain on resources. At worst, it can mean the difference between life and death. Trevor Baldwin, Yorkshire Ambulance Service’s Head of EOC Service Development, is one of the 97 UK services which use the technology for free and said many 999 callers had already used the technology to help identify their location. He added: “Having this type of technology integrated within our Emergency Operations Centre system has changed the way we are able to deal with incidents where the location isn’t known. Asking people questions about their location when they have little knowledge of an area takes time and responses aren’t always that accurate. Asking for a what3words address or sending an SMS so they can easily provide their three-word address, means that we can save valuable time locating incidents.” Data from 15 services shows the vast spectrum of cases where what3words addresses have been used, with road traffic accidents, locating vulnerable people and breathing difficulties cited for being amongst the most common reasons “A 999 call could be one of the worst times of your life. Having to provide additional directions when you’re under immense stress and the clock is ticking is something that we want everyone to avoid. You never know when an emergency might happen, but with what3words, you’ll always be able to say exactly where help is needed - quickly and easily.” Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of what3words.

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