Yorkshire ambulance service urges us to download potentially life-saving app

With lots of us in about to head home for Christmas Yorkshire ambulance service is urging us to download a potentially life-saving app.

Tomorrow marks the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year with less than 8h of sunlight. New research from the AA shows that more than a third (34%) of us do not feel comfortable driving in the dark during the winter months, with 54% blaming oncoming headlights and 53% disliking icy or snowy roads.

Furthermore, nearly a third (30%) do not trust that their sat nav will guide them to the correct location.

But being with family and friends at this time of year is to some of us non-negotiable, as over half (48%) of UK adults admit that they do not check the weather before heading out on a long drive.

What3Words means you can give the emergency services your exact location if you do need help.

"It makes our lives easier"

Helen Smith is a dispatcher at Yorkshire Ambulance and says they depend on it more and more: "Yorkshire particularly it's really rural, for example we dispatched our air ambulance this week, there was a crash on a rather large road, it gave us the three words that we could plot on our system and direct the ambulances and the air ambulance to it and when we looked on the map it was exactly where those what3words had plotted for us."

"If there are on a road between junctions or something we can literally pinpoint them down to the tree they are stood next to and it makes our lives easier and it helps save a few seconds on getting somebody in an emergency situation then it all counts really."

"The roads are going to be so much busier and people are going to be travelling out of their normal areas, maybe to places they don't know, be more mindful of the dark nights and the potential bad weather. We get so many road traffic accidents this time of year and obviously when there is more traffic on the road that does get increased."

It's already an incredibly busy time for call handlers at Yorkshire Ambulance Service: "Yorkshire gets on average about 3,400 calls a day, in the run up to Christmas that can increase up to 3,800. We're just encouraging members of the public when to call 999 or when it might be more appropriate to call 111 or speak to your pharmacy."

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