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From: wclx@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: E911 Experience
Message-ID: <9749@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 15 Jul 90 20:39:09 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 486, Message 5 of 6


In article <9611@accuvax.nwu.edu>, chris@com50.c2s.mn.org (Chris
Johnson) writes:
 
> Op:  "So you didn't see a knife..."

> Me:  [exasperated]  "No, but these guys are drunk or brain damaged.  They are
> way out of it.  They are scaring the people here..."

> Op:  "Let me talk to the person who saw the knife."

In Detroit, callers who report hearing shots from the house next door
(or wherever) are asked HOW MANY shots.  If they don't report a large
enough number, the report is ignored (ref. Detroit Free Press circa
1980).  I guess that reflects local conditions.

One afternoon when I was walking along Warren Avenue in Detroit (a
major street with fast, heavy traffic), I noticed some confusion at an
intersection with Third Avenue (aka Anthony Wayne Drive).  The traffic
lights were malfunctioning such that for part of the cycle, the lights
were green in both directions!  There were no police or city workers
present.

After seeing several very near misses, I phoned 911 and reported what
was happening.  The operator was unbelievably thick and didn't seem to
understand what I meant by "traffic light."

After a few go-rounds, I found the trick which woke her up and got her
attention: I threatened to give up.  This had an almost miraculous
effect.  Suddenly, all her languor was gone; she begged me to repeat
the location, and finally seemed to understand what I was talking
about.

I didn't have time to hang around to see what happened.  The light was
fixed by the next day, however.

As to stories about 911 screwups that led to fatalities, there was one
such in my hometown of East Lansing, Michigan.  A student at Michigan
State University was hit on the chest with a baseball and eventually
died.  The emergency response was greatly delayed because the
dispatcher had zero familiarity with the MSU campus (which has about
24,000 residents, almost 10% of the county's population) and sent
paramedics to Holmes Street in Lansing rather than Holmes Hall at MSU.
This happened about ten years ago, long before E911 or automatic
address identification in that area.  Actually, I'm not absolutely
certain whether the student's death could have been prevented if
paramedics had arrived more promptly.


Lawrence Kestenbaum, wclx@vax5.cit.cornell.edu -OR- wclx@cornella.bitnet
506 S. Albany St., Ithaca NY 14850-5514