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Emergency dispatchers behind call for app download

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David JohnsEastern Reporter

EMERGENCY operators in WA are throwing their weight behind a new app that provides the exact GPS coordinates of the caller.

WA-based emergency medical dispatcher Tahlia James and a group of her colleagues are pushing for 10,000 downloads of the free Emergency+ app by July 15.

Ms James said many people believed emergency operators could quickly locate callers when they dialled triple zero – however it was not that easy in real life.

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“Your mobile device has a big limitation – it doesn’t give the emergency operator your exact location,” she said.

“People’s lives are at risk right now because they cannot count on emergency services being able to reach them without an exact location.”

When the app is activated, it provides users with their exact GPS coordinates that can be relayed to the emergency operator to determine their location.

“It’s about bringing awareness to the importance of knowing your location when calling triple zero,” Ms James said.

The app was conceived and created by the Federal Government’s Triple Zero Working Group.

Log on to the campaign’s Facebook page for information.