(source: TASR)
The Mountain Rescue Service (HZS) launched a new app that allows tourists to call for help with one button and share their location with rescuers.
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In addition, tourists can check the weather forecast and warnings in mountains anywhere in Slovakia. Although it is only in Slovak, however, it is quite easy to navigate within the app.
The app will also help the Mountain Rescue Service. Its statistics showed that more and more interventions are occuring in the mountains.
“In the last ten years, we noted a 182-percent growth in requests for help, one-quarter of which were for getting lost or stuck in the mountain terrain, which is alarming,” said director of HZS Jozef Janiga, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “Without modern tools, sending help would be very difficult, especially from the time point of view.”
One-click on the button “Privolať pomoc” (Call help) will immediately connect app users with the HZS emergency line. If they cannot communicate with rescuers because they are injured or impaired, they may communicate with rescuers via chat or text messages.
Besides that, the app provides other useful functions; tourists may search for the nearest Mountain Rescue Service centre, saving station, a station with a defibrillator or the nearest mountain chalet.
Rambling alone
The app also includes an electronic ramble book, a technological novelty within the whole EU.
“In the past, we have encountered visitors who are alone in the mountains,” explained Janiga, as quoted by TASR. “The ramble book is meant for them. It is a virtual book where tourists put in their planned destination and time of the return, and in case of need, the app will notify a person at HZS.”
Company Medical Information Technologies worked on the development of the new app, which also operates apps in Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic. Filip Maleňák, the developer of the mobile apps, said that the biggest value is cross-border cooperation and the app's ability to call for help while sending important data within Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary.
Maleňák also said that this app is modified for visually-impaired people and for those with hearing disabilities. He recalled a case of a visually-impaired user in Austria who was able to call help thanks to the icons on the Czech app, without knowing their own location.
The app is accessible in the App Store and Google Play.
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