Surely it must be obvious to all that 999 should also turn on the phone camera, if it has one!

This would help a lot of circumstances, especially if you are witnessing a crime

I've never heard of the '55' option. Is this a common feature in the UK?

Some serious advertising by the Government needs to be made if it is the case.

My previous suggestion is also valid.

Perhaps if all mobile phones put out a recorded message after pressing the emergency numbers and then 55?

Perhaps also giving the Rescue services a volume enhancing amplifier as well so they can increase the volume if need be.

I really think it needs to be mentioned re Hannah being a murder victim. She obviously thought she could dial 999 discreetly in her coat pocket and hope someone could hear her or "suspicious" noises. Hence why she couldn't hear the instruction to tap the phone or press 5 twice the shock possibly being real shock i.e. loss of blood rather than "fear" shock.

Perhaps some of the previous posters aren't from the UK so don't know, otherwise shame on you. There's links in the guardian article linked to above to details of her murder and her murderers jailing for those who are not UK based.

Another reason to carry a weapon instead of calling for help.

that Hannah was Hannah Foster who couldn't speak into the phone because she was being murdered.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7748046.stm

Don’t quite understand. Ok, she was in shock. But if she can dial 999, why couldn’t she then dial 55 for the automated response?

The only solution to this is for the phone to have a user-settable function built-in that when it dials 999, it will play back a preset sound file
with emergency details if it doesn't hear anyone speaking within 20 seconds?

Would be easy for a Android or iPhone developer to do this. Maybe someone could sell an App?

Just slip me a tiny percentage... OK?

but can dial 999 in the first place... Come on get a grip..