A mobile phone application has been developed that’ll summon the emergency services after your car's hit something, bounced across the tarmac, rolled down the ravine and hit a tree.

The Sun Java-based Automatic Vehicular (Save) accident reporting system takes advantage of various sensor technologies found in phones and satnavs to detect if a car’s, say, the right way up or has come to a halt upside-down.

Designed by Debopam Acharya, from the Department of Computer Sciences at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, Save will interrogate a phone's sensors to help determine the broad nature of a car accident and then summon the correct emergency help directly to the scene.

Sensors include a phone's accelerometer, while the handset's GPS pick-up would be used to measure everything from the mobile phone’s current location to its speed prior to the crash.

However, it sounds like the app would also call the paramedics if your phone rolled off of the sofa and into a steaming mug of tea.

No plans to release Save as a commercial application have been announced. ®

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