BMW Motorrad has released information about seriously useful and possibly life-saving technology in the form of ECALL (Intelligent Emergency Call).

This feature has already been utilised for some time in BMW’s cars and has shown to be incredibly successful in reducing the time between an incident and getting vital assistance.

There are three possible situations which ECALL can deal with to ensure that assistance is dispatched to you in the shortest possible time in the event of an accident.

1. If you are involved in a serious collision, sensors on the bike confirm the severity and then relay the information back to BMW’s Emergency Call Centre with information of location and direction of travel. An operator will contact you via an integrated speaker on the bike but even without any response from you, the Emergency Services will be dispatched to you and there is no option to cancel.
2. If you have a minor incident, you will be contacted automatically but this time you have the option to cancel the chain of events required to get assistance out to you. There is a warning light and audible warning to highlight that ECALL has been activated.
3. Finally, if you come across and incident and need to alert the Emergency Services, you can press the SOS button on the handlebar to make contact with the call centre who will then react accordingly to what you tell them.

None of these scenarios require a SIM card or your phone to be connected. Furthermore, because there is a fixed speaker and microphone in the handlebar unit, you don’t need to have any helmet comunication system.

Surely a massive leap forwards in motorcycle safety?

Priced at £295 and available on the R 1200 GS, GS Adventure from September production and the R 1200 RT, K 1600 GT, GTL and Bagger from August production.