When you travel abroad, you put your safety in the hands of a foreign emergency response team—at least, in the case of a serious mishap.
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While the vast majority of travelers visit their favorite destinations and return home unscathed, emergencies can happen abroad. And in some cases, like getting lost while hiking or getting a flat tire out in the Boonies, Mother Nature might be involved.
In other words, you never know when or where you’ll need the help of an emergency response team. Even the most seasoned travelers can find themselves in a bind.
Last summer, I got a flat tire on a rural road in Sicily, and we needed help replacing the tire from a road response team. Thankfully, we only waited a few hours, despite the remote area where we were marooned and Sicily’s less-than-sterling sense of urgency.
If you plan on renting a car, wandering off the beaten path, or otherwise striking out into the unknown, you might want to take a look at which countries have the least reliable response teams. Here’s what we know based on a new study from Intersec, a crisis management software provider that knows a thing or two about first response teams.
Countries with the least reliable emergency call protocols
Intersec experts examined emergency call responses in over 50 countries. The study weighs four metrics: 4G service coverage, mobile download speeds, internet penetration rates, and whether or not there’s an AML in place. AMLs are systems that automatically forward a caller’s GPS coordinates to a response team.
The idea here is that countries with more 4G coverage, faster download speeds, greater internet availability, and AMLs are able to mount faster, more accurate emergency responses than others. Geography plays a big part here, along with how tech-forward a country is.
Without further ado, here are the results, starting with the least equipped:
- Pakistan
- Nigeria
- Kenya
- India
- Indonesia
- Egypt
- South Africa
- Russia
- Japan
- Argentina
Wondering how Russia, Japan, and Argentina ended up on the list despite widespread cellphone adoption and internet availability? They don’t have AML systems set up. That means that emergency responders don’t have access to your GPS coordinates from your cell phone call.
That’s an interesting gap. According to the Intersec study, Canada, South Korea, and Italy also lack AML systems.
Wondering which countries came out ahead in terms of emergency call responses? Here are the top ten safest countries to visit based on emergency call protocols:
- Belgium
- Switzerland
- Denmark
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Czechia
- France
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Ireland
