Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus and to a method for recognizing an accident situation of a road vehicle (1). The apparatus has a sensor device for detecting at least two accident parameters having at least one operator monitoring sensor (2) for monitoring a climbing down of an operator (20) from an operator's seat (3) as a first accident parameter and having at least one further sensor unit (4) for detecting a deviation of the road vehicle from a predefined operating state of the road vehicle (1) as a second accident parameter. The sensor device is connected to a control unit (5) and this control unit (5) is in turn connected to a data transmission device (6). The control unit (5) is configured to check a presence of the at least two accident parameters and, on the detected presence of the at least two accident parameters, to generate an emergency call signal and to contact an external data reception station (7) by means of the data transmission device (6).