Bulgarian mobile operators have the obligation to provide free calls to the common European emergency number 112 to motorists involved in a road accident.

The operators are obliged to provide technical capacity for free calls to 112 from a vehicle involved in a road accident everywhere in the country if there is coverage.

This was adopted at the regular meeting of the council of ministers on Wednesday, the government's press service informs.

The operators are obliged to transfer and redirect the calls from the dashboard equipment of the vehicles to the nearest emergency call centre.

This implements the recommendation of the European Commission (EC), dating back to 8 September 2011, in support of the so-called eCall service.

The eCall initiative aims to deploy a device installed in all vehicles which will automatically dial 112 in case of a serious road accident.

It will also wirelessly send airbag deployment and impact sensor information as well as GPS coordinates to emergency agencies.