Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 23 Jun 91 20:52:34 GMT From: Gordon Burditt Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Emergency Calls (was Operator Busy Break-In) Message-ID: Organization: Gordon Burditt Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 488, Message 4 of 7 Lines: 55 > Also, if you claim an emergency exists as the reason for the busy > party to break the connection when in fact there is no emergency, then > you are probably guilty of a misdeamenor crime. Likewise if an > energency *does* exist and the called party refuses to yield the line > then he is guilty of a misdemeanor crime. PAT] It's a misdemeanor for me to refuse to get off the line so I can receive a call which someone calls an emergency? (How about if I get off the line and re-establish the call, or just hang up on the "emergency"? What if my modem is using the line? Is the operator expected to speak PEP?) What is the legal definition of "emergency" when the person being called is not the police, fire department, medical personnel, repair crews for various utilities, the military, nor does this person support them in their work? My phone book says an emergency is "a situation in which property or human life is in jeopardy and the prompt summoning of aid is essential". It also talks about emergency calls being to "a fire department or police department or for medical aid or ambulance service". I had at least one relative who genuinely considered a birth announcement or acknowledgement of receipt of a package to be an emergency. A former manager considered a 5% probability that I might be needed by others working on Sunday sometime during that day to be an emergency requiring my presence immediately (a phone call if/when I'm actually needed would take too long). I'm not talking about a party line, or someone on an extension, where someone needs to call the police, fire department, or an ambulance. Nor am I objecting to a break-in on my conversation when I am talking to the police, fire department, or medical personnel, unless my call was a greater emergency. Nor will I object if the trunk I was using is needed to reach emergency services. I can't think of a reason why emergency services would need to reach me. I can't think of a single situation where a call directed to me would be an emergency. (The class of "relative hit by truck or arrested" reasons don't apply because all my relatives are out-of-state. Even then I'm not sure they qualify as emergencies. I'm not a doctor or lawyer). Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon [Moderator's Note: Your telephone book pretty accurately describes an 'emergency'. Examples perhaps you could understand: Your neighbor's phone is out of order; they knock on your door and ask you to call the Fire Department. You refuse, because your single line is engaged on another call. You are at work using the phone and your landlord or neighbor calls to say YOUR house caught fire. You are using a pay phone on the street corner. There is an autombile accident and one of the victoims asks you to get off the phone so they can call the police or ambulance. Good enough examples for you? PAT]