A system and method for enabling emergency call initiations in response to the detection of a vehicle accident is disclosed. A number of sensors located about the vehicle, for example, air bag deployment sensors, initiate call activation signals upon detection of a vehicle accident. The emergency call activation signal is transmitted to an associated cellular telephone unit via wireline or non-wireline communications, and a timer initiates a timeout period. Once the timer has measured the proper timeout period, an emergency call setup is begun. The emergency call setup may be discontinued at any point by a user abort command. Otherwise, the mobile switching center serving the cellular telephone is alerted to initiate an emergency call. The MSC utilizes location information from the base station of the cellular telephone and emergency information from the home location register of the cellular telephone to contact and provide an emergency operator with emergency information.