Every day, more than 2,600 calls made to the emergency number 112 are calls that do not justify an emergency. This number represents approximately 42% of the total number of calls registered to 112. These are nuisance calls to make jokes, pranks, to address insults to operators, to request various information outside emergencies, like “What time is it?”. The single national service for emergency calls 112 warns that unjustified calling can cost the life of a person in danger, IPN reports.

The 112 service warns that non-emergency calls adversely affect the handling of real situations. First of all, they keep emergency lines busy as the calls are answered only in the order in which they are received. This prevents the operator from handling other real calls and the speed of response to emergency calls is thus reduced and the average time to deal with an emergency increases. Valuable seconds are wasted only to find out that the caller has no urgency.

“Many people abuse the emergency number 112, either out of convenience, whether it is a toll-free number and is active around the clock, or because it is the easiest way to ask for information,” reads a press release.

The service urges the people to call 112 only when they really have an emergency, when the life, property or the environment are in danger. The people who unjustifiably ask for emergency crews can be fined a maximum of 3,000 lei or punished with 40 to 60 hours of community service.