MERCEDES-BENZ is officially rolling out a brilliantly simple system that will help fire, police and ambulance crews access critical information about a car when arriving on the scene of an accident.

Called Rescue Assist, the stickers are placed inside the fuel filler cap and inside the door frame on the opposite side to the fuel-cap; they carry QR codes designed to be read by any enabled smartphone or tablet.

It will help identify the exact model of car, where its airbags, batteries and high voltage cables are located and the optimum points for cutting the vehicle open and safely extracting occupants if the accident is serious.

The QR stickers are located behind the fuel filler cap and on the inside of the door frame on the opposing side of the vehicle.

The idea is that if a car rolls as the result of an accident, whether it comes to rest on one of its sides or on its roof, the sticker can still be scanned and the relevant information obtained quickly.

On average the QR codes save about two minutes at the point at which the emergency services first arrive on the scene.

Mercedes-Benz plans to create Rescue Assist QR codes for all Mercedes vehicles as far back as 1990 and existing owners will be able to get the stickers added to their cars free of charge.

Mercedes-Benz has also decided not to patent the QR stickers in the hope that the technology will be adopted across the automotive industry.