The information is introduced in the app as part of a pilot project and a collaboration between the Swedish Transport Agency, the Swedish Life-Saving Society, and SOS Alarm.
Through a notice, people who are within a certain radius of an accident are now alerted to distressed individuals in the water and drowning incidents on state water, that is to say on the sea and larger lakes.
When the rescue efforts are sometimes up to half an hour away – which is not unusual out at sea – a response from people in the vicinity can be life-saving, SOS Alarm writes in a press release.
“This is a function that will enable, for example, recreational boats that happen to be near a distressed person to quickly come to the rescue, which is very positive,” says Mattias Hyllert, maritime and aviation rescue director at the Swedish Transport Agency in the press release.
In the 112-app, which has existed since 2019, SOS Alarm sends information about events in users' immediate surroundings such as fires, traffic accidents, and explosions.
