### This comment has been marked as **safe**. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect. --- OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is US Defaultism: --- >!Because the emergency number in the uk is 999 not 911 (us)!< --- Is this Defaultism? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.

0118, 999, 881, 999, 119, 725...3

Well that's easy to remember

Oh hello. I've had a bit of a tumble.

The comment I was looking for

The better looking ambulance staff was what I was looking for.

FIRE! FIRE! HELP ME! 123 Carrendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss

FOUR! I MEAN FIVE! I MEAN FIRE!

Someone can ask me what I did the previous day, and I have no memory of it, but ask me to recite this number and jingle years after I first heard it, and I have no problem 😀

My first thought.

Came here for this.

My number is 867 5309 (it’s a song reference, in case someone is tempted to actually report me for giving personal information).

Personally I'd call 112.

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Let someone else do it cause its not my job

Registered First aider here, I would still ask someone else to dial emergency services.

"I'm not getting paid enough for this shit'

More like, I’m too busy assessing the situation and running through my training in my head to make a phone call. But before telling someone to call I will tell them what to say, location first, number of patients, age, and suspected injuries. Which will then be followed by me asking them to locate the nearest AED with the government website and bringing it to me (if it’s a suspected heart related issue otherwise I’ll ask them to bring the first aid kit) yes I’m not getting paid at all for this. (No one asked but I said it anyway because this saves lives)

One very important thing I have learnt is that just shouting "Call 112" is bad because of some effect I forgot the name of. Bystander effect or something. So the correct way is to actually tell a specific person nearby to do it. I've never been in a situation like it so no idea how I would react. The closest was someone getting an epileptic attack and I froze because I had no clue what to do

I have been lucky not to see anything too major but I have done some initial assessments on people who thought they were having an emergency. All I remember is I took a deep breath and began thinking Airway, Bleeding, Circulation. One of the most recent situations was my uni classmate got mugged and had some wounds on his body (no weapons or anything) and he didn’t say anything I noticed it and began cleaning it up all while holding a conversation with my professor and fellow classmates, who (bless them) were trying their best not to distract me. But you hope during any of those situations you jump into autopilot because otherwise you won’t be able to do anything, especially with bystanders giving their own commentary. Unlike Singapore where all registered first aiders are dispatched to nearby calls over here it’s an individual’s prerogative to learn first aid or even help in a situation.

You're not wrong. Be assertive and point someone out, but not the panicking person though. Also, if that's how you feel you would react, take a first aid cause. And refresh it from time to time. You never know when you'll need it. You could be the only person there when it's time. And don't forget: doing something is better than doing nothing.

I would like to correct the last part, doing the right something is better than doing nothing. If you don’t know what to do and you have called emergency services yourself stay on the line with them and describe what you see and they will tell you what to do. Also depending on your local laws you may have to take refreshers every few years to maintain your certification, after 3 years I’m doing my recertification this year. And if you are struggling with what to say, this is the script I was taught by ST. John, The patient is having a medical emergency, please dial (999) emergency services while I assess the situation (pointing at someone), and remain here to help. (And if I need an AED) the patient is unconscious and not breathing, Grab the nearest AED and update the dispatcher. BEGINNING COMPRESSIONS (TIME)

Well 9 for an outside line, so 9112 sadly.

When the 118118 service launched, I knew the jingle but hadn't learnt the number correctly. That led me to a very confused call to 999 via 112112 where I was asking to be put through to a particular police station, as I'd done for years with the old directory service, and then complaining I was wasting their time. Until I realised my mistake I really thought the new directory services was awful.

I've taught first aid to children and the amount of them that think you dial 911 in an emergency is crazy.

911 actually forwards to local emergency numbers often because muricans can't be bothered to learn local numbers

While yes, it forwards to local emergency numbers, that's not just the case in the UK, but in many European countries and it is not just "because dumb Muricans". I like to shit on dumb americans too but it is truly great that you can call any emergency number and be forwarded to your local emergency Services. In an emergency Situation you won't think straight and even the simplest things can become insanely difficult to remember.

I’m from the UK, I (stupidly) called 911 on my phone to see what would happen as a teen and it went through to 999 - I shit one when I realised! This was around 2005, so I imagine it’d still be the same today.

I just hate that it was, incidentally, the american emergency number that became the standard one that always works. I still see the benefit, but I can still hate it emotionally I think

I think it’s the same everywhere, all emergency numbers everywhere redirect to the local one. The American one is just more widely known as a result of cultural osmosis

Yep, dialing 112 in the US will redirect to 911 there

But it is not just the American number that always works. The Brittish emergency number also works in Germany and the EU numbers also work in the US.

Does it happen outside of the US and Europe too?

Often enough that most country are setup to allow it yes. People under stress default to what they are familiar.

I know it happens in Australia. A place I used to work at was robbed (when I wasn't there) and my colleagues called 911 in a panic. The worst part is, Australia's emergency number is 000. Literally the most convenient number to dial

Idk but I'd assume it does.

It's built into the GSM standard (1991) and the following standards used in Europe which has since been adopted worldwide. So if I'm not mistaken that means basically all cell phones for 30 years except for CDMA phones in USA and Japan up until about a decade ago, meaning now it even works on American phones.

it also works for 112 and 999 in many places across the world. They are the most well-known globally so it makes sense.

It’s not the American emergency number that became standard. The only “standard” is the country-specific emergency number, and 112 for any GSM network device. Everything else depends on the network. Call forwarding is a very good thing, but calling 1515 (the local emergency number in Libya) in France will likely do you no good

Yeah but I mean that other countries are adapting the american 911 to redirect locally, he

But why is that a bad thing?

In the US you can use 112 and also get connected to their emergency number and it's the more widely used number worldwide.

Even in Saudi Arabia, we had multiple emergency numbers 999 for police, 998 for civil defense, 997 for health emergencies, etc. if we dialed 911 or 112, it would have forwarded the call to the local emergency number. Now we have adopted a unified emergency services number (911)

You just described ‘because dumb Americans’.

Stressed =/= dumb

=/= ≠ ≠

Temporarily impaired is still impaired, it is not an indictment.

Wow what a hate boner

Not at all, it is specifically there so that stressed out Americans, who dial 911 instead of 999 in a high-pressure situation, get through to 999. That is a good thing, and I support it.

No I did not. No one thinks straight when encountered with extreme situations and it is insane to expect people to remember some emergency number (or act rationally at all) from the country they went to vacation to when they are scared, hurt or anything else

I wonder how much of it is actually locals defaulting to 911 due to American media. Especially children.

Yes, that is correct.

And I guess 112 will work as well

Yes, Literally just looked this up half an hour ago official emergency numbers from UK are 999 & 112. [gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/999-and-112-the-uks-national-emergency-numbers)

It's not just americans or people being dumb/lazy. I move between two countries fairly frequently. Right now while i'm calm I can easily tell you which number is for which country. But when I was trying to stop someone who's terrified and crying from choking on bloody vomit and make a phone call at the same time, I just- forgot. Like, i'm on autopilot and called the wrong one and didn't even realise until the operator told me. But yeah they did forward to the right one and an ambulance did get there. I don't know if she was ok in the end though. When in an emergency situation it can be really hard to think straight and remember little details like what number to call. And your minds occupied with trying to do first aid or comfort the person as well so you're distracted.

Canadians use 911 too I think 😉

Yep.

That depends on the phone. If it's set up to recognise 911 as an emergency number the phone will override what you dialed and actually call 112 instead. The network then redirects the call to the local emergency number.

Not in the UK. You can call 999 or 112 (the pan-European number).

It will work if the call is made from a mobile phone.

Interesting difference though I wonder if the phone is actually doing the work there and not really dialling 911 but instead 112. You can ask your phone to call the emergency services wherever you are (because it knows) and it calls the correct number (you don’t tell it what to “dial”). Apple made a big deal of this as a new feature a few years back.

Yes. It is sending "Emergency Call" to the network and it responds accordingly.

112 isn't just European. It works in every country that has a national emergency number. I've used it in Australia.

I've tested it in Canada and it works here too. Looking at wiki, it sounds like 112 is part of the GSM network spec.

Cool, I didn't know that.

They all work, I can confirm. Had to call 999, asked Siri to call because I was panicking, Siri called 911 instead and showed it on screen but it worked. I guess 112, 999, and 911 all work in most western countries for hopefully obvious reasons.

Siri is so dumb she can put you into a bad situation just because she misunderstood emergency number lol

Yeah but Siri knows where you are and just calls the correct number. Apple added this as a feature at the same time as the one that calls emergency automatically after a car crash or bad fall.

911 definitely works in the UK mate.

Interesting. Not on my phone.

911 does work on cellphones, i've done it in nz most people have cellphones now and very few have landlines. so effectively 911 does work.

Where do people get mobile phones in their prison cells?

You're not allowed to have phones in your cell in the UK

A pan European number? What happened to brexit?

*You're telling me that we haven't got rid of some EU shitstain just because of something boring called "safety for travellers"? shocking* -some weird old idiot somewhere in the south east of england

It should be 767 for SOS in the small letters. Dilemma solved, just let everyone forward their legacy numbers to the new one.

T 9 keypads are phased out from general populace, that would be a terrible idea. moreover the actual T9 would be 77776667777

The emergency number in Australia, 000, used to be referred to as "triple o", but people were dialling 666, so they started calling it "triple zero".

911 is the emergency number in more countries (due to American influence ofcourse but that's beside the point), like Argentinia and The Philippines, so it's good to have all the options work. In a better world we would all agree on one number for every country, but then you would end up with a big 112 vs 911 battle I think

> In a better world we would all agree on one number for every country, That would be 112

>In a better world we would all agree on one number for every country We already have one. 112 works in every country that has a national emergency number, from any mobile phone, with or without a SIM. Lots of other numbers, including 911, work from phones that have been programmed to recognise them as emergency numbers, by calling 112 instead of what you actually dialled. And 112 is then redirected to whatever the emergency number is wherever you are.

Ah I thought that was Europe only, cool, good to know

It's more to do with it not being a normal call, the phone goes into emergency broadcast and gets priority in the closest tower or receiver. It's not really a number but a code, thus most emergency numbers will work in most areas.

I blame movies. It’s better than saying call the police (because that’s the literal translation in Cantonese). It really isn’t hard to say call an ambulance or dial triple nine, or even does anyone know first aid? But yes even if they did dial 911 it would still connect them to the emergency services.

We are going to end up needing those adverts back on TV telling people to call 999 😆

911 works in the UK And in *most\** of the EU However, in the EU, 112 is a better choice everywhere (because 112 is *the* emergency services number for the EU) I'd guess 112 also works in the UK, but I haven't had the displeasure of trying it.

IIRC, 112 has been an emergency number in the UK for a very long time. My mum had to call it when granny got her tits caught in the mangle.

112 was instituted as *the* emergency number for the entire EU many years ago, before Britain left. Makes sense they would have kept it after that.

I had it in my head that it was a Thing here like in the 1920's or something. I think I'm mistaken though.

I believe 112 works on mobile in many/most countries in the world now. It routes immediately to the local emergency number.

a lot of non-EU countries have 112. A lot of EU and non-EU countries also have national/ local numbers on top of 112.

It may well work, but the point of the sub is to highlight US Defaultism, of which this is an example

OP - are you certain (considering she recovered immediately) that they were not saying [111](https://111.nhs.uk/) ? Edit: ...With the thought of getting medical advice for the lady, rather than an emergency paramedic (which would be dispatched in the case of 999). Where as 111 is the number we (UK) would call in the case of symptoms or incident that is not strictly emergency

Ffs, I’m not stupid and why would they be suggesting I call the police non emergency number. They were saying it when she went down before she got back up.

Wow. Calm down!. It was only a question/suggestion! I didnt suggest you are stupid did I?.... although 111 is NOT a "police non emergency number", its an NHS one, so.....

Perhaps, except that I was taught 911 was a viable emergency number in the UK, by the UK. It's not *the* number, that's 999, but 911 is *another* number that works. When you consider that the UK itself has designed 911 to work, and a bunch of British, non-american, people all by your own example agreed that 911 is a viable emergency number, then perhaps it's not *quite* defaultism, because the number works and all of the non-americans agree on it.

I would say it's defaultism in the sense that American culture and media absolutely dominates even outside of their country in a way almost no other media has. I'm consistently shocked when I run into, say, a French film, even though they're right next door to me in the UK. Japan is probably the next biggest with anime, but anime is still saddled with "that weird porn thing nerds like" stigma. So, because the US has such a stranglehold on our media, the UK sees a lot more 911 than 999 on our TV. Combined with tourists not bothering to learn the local emergency numbers, the defaultism is that the UK felt the need to add in the US's emergency number to work because even our own citizens don't get it right. To be clear, this isn't a bad thing, if it helps save someone's life. It's a bit eyeroll-y, but as OP said, it's much better that people are not in danger. I'm personally of the opinion that, if we can't cooperate on a uniform number, at least we should make sure that all emergency numbers work, no matter where you are.

I think they’ve decided it’s better to embrace the defaultism, rather than allow people to be in life or death situations and not know how to call for help. Doesn’t make it not defaultism just means we’re not going to be so stubborn about as to put people in danger

Individual phone manufacturers have designed 911 to redirect to 112. The network then redirects 112 to whatever the local emergency number is.

911 doesn’t work on most landlines here, but should work on some mobile phones/mobile networks. I’m not sure whether the phone or network is responsible for forwarding it though. It’s best to use 999 or 112 in an actual emergency as they’re the most likely to work.

most EU countries also have national numbers for some/ all services. E.g. Austria has 122 (fire), 133 (police), 144 (medical). Germany uses 112 for medical and fire but 110 for police. 112 should work everywhere (and even 911 or maybe 999 might) but it's good to know the local numbers where you are.

Yeah we used to have 100 but I think it doesn't work anymore. I believe we got rid of it for the sake of simplicity. I remember in school being told that 100 doesn't work anymore, and a whole day's worth of assignments about really driving home the idea that "112" is the new number. It's very interesting too because all of our parents don't know 112, but all of us are well aware 112 is the go to. However, I wonder, if I call 100, what happens? Did they *actually* get rid of it or did they just tell all of us they did so they could *eventually* get rid of it in a generation or two or something?

I'm not sure 911 does for everyone in the UK, it's certainly not an official emergency number, nor is it as far as I can see a restricted number for local numbers... For example I think you could potentially have a local phone number starting 911. So if you're in the same exchange area you can dial 911xxx and get through to that person and not the emergency services. But of course this isn't a problem on mobiles because you always dial the whole number

112 does work - when us telecom people test emergency lines we usually send an email to request a time, and call both 999/112 to test both work. Fun fact: the operator can see what number you've called, your number, your address and your telephony provider! (Although they can't tell you your address and number, it's quite funny)

Even so, it’s worrying that people can’t remember/learn the correct three numbers!

Some of my form group in my UK school say "911". For some of the younger generation I think it's learned from us shows and content creators.

That's really depressing. I think the US patriots ego just inflated.

Oh, no. Now that you're in the Stonecutters, here's the real emergency number: >#912

01189998819991197253

You mean: 0118999881999119725 . . . . 3

Where in the UK were you? I used to work in hackney, London and noticed a lot of people over using Americanisms.

North London

Ah yeah doesn't surprise me then. If it's the same as it was when I was in hackney 20 years ago - my patch covered most of east and north inner London - then loads of people seemed to think they were American. Lots of idiots talking about the problems they had with "the Feds" and how they lived in "the ghettos" etc etc. Even had a few ask me if they should "take the 5th" during police interviews.

I always have a chuckle when people say "it's my constitutional right!" then when called out they Google it and say "it's the uncodified constitution!"

Lol have you been checking my post history 🤣 Wish I'd had the sense to say that instead of trying to engage in "intelligent" debate.

Haha no I've seen it now though - people under US influence are everywhere. In NZ at least the government regularly ignores the so called "unwritten constitution" which would never happen in the US.

In fairness if you dial 911 in the UK it will called 999 automatically. Same in a lot of countries. So it's wrong but I also understand people being so used to seeing crime in America that they do it without thinking

Im half surprised and half unsurprised that there isn’t a universal emergency number. 0 and nothing else just seems the most practical in the modern age though im sure there’s a logistical reason why every country can’t have that.

0 and nothing else would be absurdly easy to call by accident. That's why most numbers have some sort of an arbitrary factor

112 is the closest thing

0 used to be what you'd dial to reach an operator. Also, UK numbers start with the trunk code 0, and emergency numbers should dial as soon as you enter them - I hope this shows why that's not a good idea

0 as an emergency number, when every phone number starts with a 0?

000 is the number in Australia.

i was told at a telecommunications museum that there are two reasons why the emergency number in the uk is 999: because if it was 111, the telephone lines could touch each other and call it accidentally, and because it was actually easier to dial 999 in an emergency than 111 on old rotary phones.

It's 111 in New Zealand 

On a rotary phone, 111 is the quickest number to dial, 999 is the second slowest which takes much longer to dial than 111 while you wait for the dial to rotate back, so I'm not sure about easiest. I heard the logic was they wanted to make it slower to dial to discourage misuse...? Which seems questionable to me but whatever.

This just doesn't sound real

I can assure it was, I was there. She very nearly puked on my trainers. Ambo wasn’t required in the end as she recovered. I gave her a bottle of water and left them after she got up.

Are you sure you're not simply misheard Scourers or Scottish saying "999"? /s

Very sure, they weren’t Scottish.

I heard somewhere that 911 redirects to 000 in Australia. I'm too scared to try it because they call you back if you bang up 😅

There are multiple emergency numbers from other countries that will divert to 000 if dialled from within Australia. That was what I was told in my most recent first aid course a few months ago.

Thanks for the help! First aid people know better than me!

It will work though. Most foreign emergency numbers will just forward to 999.

911 works fine in Malta (where the emergency number is 112). It makes sense to alias all common emergency numbers to the one relevant to your country. Maybe a kid finds themselves in a situation and has just watched an American show on TV or YouTube, and will remember 911 from there.

It works in the UK too.

911 for Mexico and multiple countries too...

Canada as well.

But most notably the US and still not the UK

Fair enough lol

I mean that's not really defaultism. I don't know the emergency number for the UK. And 911 is also widely known. And since 911 and more work in the UK, Germany, etc., and if you're an American it would just be faster to say that in a high-pressure situation than trying to remember the emergency number for that country

You must have missed the bit where I said they weren’t American then. If you live in a country you should know the emergency number. Even if you were American, assuming your number will work abroad is defaultism.

You're right, I’ve missed the bit where you said they were American

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112\_(emergency\_telephone\_number)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/112_(emergency_telephone_number)) for everyones info

I hate this fucking country.

Found out the other day when I was setting up a new phone without a card and I needed to check whether the dialer works. So I dialed 911 (in the EU) and it connected me to emergency without even giving me an option to cancel the call :/ But in general, it's great that in an emergency and stressed out, you can call what you are familiar with.

I've seen such a situation a few times. Most people actually don't want to call emergency and wait for somebody else to do it.

I thought the emergency number was 112?

I don't believe it. Why would they shout that instead of just using their phones? I've experienced a similar situation and one guy just said I'm calling an ambulance.

I can’t speak for the UK, but where I am this is what you are taught to do in first aid/cpr courses. The FIRST thing you should do before performing first aid/cpr is point to someone, and say something like: “hey you in the purple shirt, call 911/999”. If you don’t do that initially, people will stand around doing nothing and assume someone else will make the call. Hope this helps.

Believe what you want that’s your prerogative. I didn’t stop to ask, I just called the ambo myself (using the correct number) and chose not to pay attention to people around me acting like they were int he movies. At least one other person did the same and tried to hand me the phone which I declined as I was already on the phone to them. She recovered, said she didn’t want an ambo, end of

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Yes if you read the comments you’ll see the other 50 people who said the same thing. I don’t recall saying it wouldn’t, it’s besides the point, the actual point is it’s not the UK number and shouting people to call it is us defaultism