Starting Monday, call 911 for emergencies when you’re in Yucatán, and anywhere else in Mexico.
This is the second and final stage of a rollout introduced last October.
A set of numbers already familiar to Canadian and U.S. visitors and residents, 911 replaces 066. If you call the old number out of habit, you will be rerouted to 911, according to authorities.
The 911 service is comprised of 194 call centers throughout the country, employing 300 supervisors overseeing 3,000 operators who have received special training designed by the Psychology School at the National Autonomous University of México.
Operators are trained to guide callers such as women in labor or choking victims until help arrives. Moreover, the National Women’s Institute has provided 911 operators with guidelines specific to helping abused women.
Indigenous and deaf communities have access to a mobile app that lets them request basic services provided by 911. No promises have been made to accommodate callers in English.
The final 16 states that will get the service Monday are Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico City, Michoacán, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, State of México, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Yucatán.
911 became the United States’ emergency number in 1968, and Canada’s in 1972.
Source: El Universal, Wikipedia
