Garmin SOS fails South African biker after accident
A South African biker’s post-accident medical treatment was delayed after the SOS feature on his Garmin satellite communicator failed to evoke a timely response from emergency services.
Rapport reports that Johan Swarts only received a call from ...continues
See https://gadgeteer.co.za/garmin-sos-fails-south-african-biker-after-accident/
@danie10 That sucks and should indeed not happen. Glad the biker got out relatively okay regardless.
it is so easy to take it for granted here in Northern Europe that LTE mobile phones and 112 generally work well everywhere and we don't have to depend on multiple private companies (usually only just one such as BT or KPN) to process emergency calls, and their performance is closely monitored by regulators..
@vfrmedia It's a bit overkill over here, indeed. Maybe way out the boondocks of Sweden or Iceland.
But the whole point of this thing, is that it works when you go really remote. E.g. Itchy Boots has one too because she goes way off the beaten path on her travels.
If it is designed for that and you pay for it, it should work and work very well. It's the people who know they might need it who get devices and services like this.
I was reading the chaps post on FB - someone suggested in developing countries an issue is there are multiple private companies involved who only act once they know they will get paid for the emergency response; but that doesn't explain why the call wasn't *immediately* passed to the South African Coastguard rather than a day later - I looked up the area where the incident happened and although inland, its near enough the coast that someone there should have local knowledge
I used to have to monitor 999 (112) calls for a former workplace (senior care home) and if the link from British Telecom to the Ambulance Service failed they would just present the call again until they did answer - its worrying that Garmin doesn't seem to have this level of response (and also they didn't reply to the biker for *2 months* and just treated it as a normal support request)