Slovakian app helps rescuers locate people in the mountains who need help

09.08.2024 - 13:11 / euronews.com

Slovakia’s Mountain Rescue Service introduced a location-sharing feature to its rescue app at the beginning of 2024, amid an increasing number of fatal accidents in the mountains.

To help lost or injured tourists in the mountains, Slovakia’s Mountain Rescue Service launched an app called HZS in 2020.

The new feature allows the helicopter rescue medical service to locate people in need of help in the mountains with coordinates.

According to Travel to Slovakia, a state-owned marketing organisation, rescuers can locate a lost person with an accuracy of within 20 to 30 metres while using the app.

"It simplifies our work in that we do not have to call the place of intervention with the patient,” said Iveta Križalkovičová, the director of the helicopter emergency medical service.

“We get into the helicopter and during the preparation for the flight, or even during the flight, we receive the coordinates directly".

The team behind the rescue app says a large part of the rescue operations involves searching for injured hikers.

“One’s abilities and the difficulty of the hike are most often underestimated. And it’s still the main reason something happens," said Filip Maleňák, the managing director of Medical Information Technologies, the developer company behind the app.

According to Slovakia’s Mountain Rescue Service, the number of fatal accidents in the mountains has increased by almost half last year.

“The emergency line’s operations centre received almost 1,200 emergency calls in the first half of the year - which represents a slight increase compared to last year," said Maleňák.

Travel to Slovakia says the app works even in places without any signal. Once users send an sms via the app they will be connected to the HZS dispatch.

The app is available in 11 mountain areas in Slovakia such as the High Tatras and the Slovak Paradise National Park as well as in neighbouring countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. 

The app redirects emergency calls or text messages to the rescue services of the particular country without users having to download a local app, according to Generali, a Slovak insurance company behind the development of the app.

The app is designed to provide information about the nearest mountain hut, infirmary, as well as rescue station. It also shows places where the 17 AED defibrillators in the mountains are located.

The Tatra National Park, a popular mountain range in Slovakia often called the “smallest alpine mountain,” attracts around 3.5 million tourists annually, according to Mapotic, a location data firm.

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