Team members stretcher the woman to their base. Photo: Keswick MRT
A Lake District team has warned people not to rely solely on the What3words app if they need to call help.
The cautionary note follows an incident when an 83-year-old woman collapsed on Monday.
Information passed to a 999 call handler, using a What3words location, placed the casualty near Hawse End on the western shore of Derwent Water. In fact, the collapsed woman was in Crow Park, almost on the doorstep of the mountain rescue headquarters, overlooking the north-east shore of the lake.
A team spokesperson said: “The team sent a Land Rover first truck to the location only to find nobody. Further enquiries revealed the true location within walking distance of the base.
“Fortunately more team members had arrived at base and were able to respond quickly to this potentially serious medical incident. The casualty was assessed and stretchered back to base for further assessment and to await the arrival of an ambulance.
“This is the second callout in three days – and there have been others – when the W3W location has been close enough to be believable but wrong enough to be useless.
“W3W should not be relied upon on its own. Always give a verbal description of where the casualty is and better still a grid reference from a map or use the OS Locate app.”
The incident lasted 1¾ hours and involved 15 Keswick MRT volunteers.
SARLOC
31 August 2022Alternatively use SARLOC V2.
Ian WADDELL
01 September 2022Never rely on technology alone.
All should be able to read a map and if possible give a grid reference
Jethro
01 September 2022I keep hearing this about W3W. Never heard a reason why though. Is it a fault with the app (no one ever shows one). Or the demographics of the users. Ie would this type of casual user mess up just as much with any navigation/location method?
Just continually casting blame solves nothing and has no purpose.
Outdoor geek
01 September 2022Because it's one of those techy ideas that sounds fantastic at first but actually is badly thought through and riddled with problems in the real world.
Potentially any of the following problems could contribute to errors:
-Errors in GPS fixes (more common than you think);
-Removes/hides spacial awareness from the user rather than supporting awareness (using unrelated words rather than words related to the location);
-Unpredictable relationship between nearby locations (banana.sofa.foot is nowhere near banana.sofa.ankle);
-Language/translation issues;
-Pronunciation variations;
-Homonyms and homophones;
-Spelling/typographical issues;
-No data check or error handling in the encoding system;
-Software bugs;
-Smartphone reliability;
-Internet/signal connection issues;
-Battery problems;
-Reliance on a single proprietary provider.
I could go on but perhaps you begin to see the range of problems.
Some of these errors can be removed by automated transfer of information so avoiding transcription errors, but if you're doing that why bother using words at all rather than an actual co-ordinate?
Last time I tried using W3W to call vehicle breakdown they thought I was in Windsor instead of on the A65 in Cumbria. Pointless!
Jane
01 September 2022If the lady collapsed in Crow Park why would people even think of calling mountain rescue instead of calling 999 and asking for the ambulance service.
OK I know the NHS and ambulance service is on it's knees and if they had done that the poor woman would still be there. But, at the end of the day the MRT aren't there to prop up a failing health service.
James
01 September 2022Jane, good comment regarding how Rescue Teams are currently being used/misused, James
Jethro
01 September 2022Outdoor Geek.
Look, I'm no fan of W3W but most of what you say is not specific to it which is what I was saying and tribe to avoid in a conversation. It also will relate to OSLocate app that the M.R. recommend.
As I said, specific things that make W3W problematic.
I've used it several times out of curiosity just because of this. Side by side with OSLocate it's always worked fine and produced the same location.
Your answer is flippant and it's part of the issue I tried to raise. Why is W3W worse than any other app? I can't see any.
It does seem as though it's, how would you describe them? Amateurs or laypeople?, getting into a panic and would probably fail with any method.
Would be really nice to see the outcome of a proper investigation.
GaryD
03 September 2022There are 3 main issues here -
1. GPS/Device Location services are not always accurate enough where there are physical barriers.
2. Emergency call takers must make an effort to check/validate every location given - whether address, grid or words.
3. What3words requires the sucessful communication of random & unrelated words used without any context and requiring prolonged effort in a stressed scenario. This results in pronunciation & comprehension issues requiring every letter to be individually communicated to ensure accuracy & with no location clues until all are done successfully. It appears that neither callers nor call takers understand this as a result of misleading marketing hype. Unfortunately, no one seems to do any fit-for-purpose assessment for these safety critical applications
There is more to emergency navigation than random words.
Valley Lad
05 September 2022The major short coming of W3W is that there is no relationship between one square and the next. A digit out on a grid reference will have you somewhere near.
Stuart
06 September 2022There's an interesting in-depth write-up of why W3W isn't good for emergency situations done by a security researcher:-
https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/
Wren
11 September 2022Spot On Valley Lad!
There are potential failings with any technology based location solution, but W3W compounds these by employing a proprietary grid system. If only we had an open source grid system, where one grid reference related to an adjacent one. If only it was free for everyone to use for everyone/no one was interested in monetising it. If only we had apps free that could give you this information readily. I know, we could call it What Six Numbers!