Path: utzoo!telecom-request
Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1991 19:10:10 GMT
From: Greg Andrews <gandrews@netcom.com>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Emergency Calls (was Operator Busy Break-In)
Message-ID: <telecom11.499.5@eecs.nwu.edu>
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In article <telecom11.496.4@eecs.nwu.edu> gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org
(Gordon Burditt) writes:

> The original start of this thread involved a charge for an operator
> break-in on an ongoing call, so one party could receive another
> emergency or non-emergency call.  The Moderator noted that it was
> illegal to refuse to yield the line to RECEIVE an emergency call (or
> let someone make one).  I claim that an 'emergency call' directed TO
> ME, a person who does not work for emergency services, can never
> happen because an emergency call is directed to emergency services, by
> both legal definition and common sense.  (When was the last time
> someone was in an automobile accident and needed an emergency port of
> UNIX to a new platform?  How about the last time a building was on
> fire and the fire department needed the root password to put out the
> fire?)

How about a call from the hospital informing you that your spouse was
in a serious automobile accident, is at the hospital in critical
condition, and could die within the hour?

Or a call that your sibling, who has had a long history of severe
depression, is currently talking with the suicide prevention hotline.
There is a very real chance that your sibling will attempt suicide if
you don't talk with them on the phone, or go over to their house.

Are you saying that you do NOT want to receive a call notifying you of
these kind of events?  That the need to get hold of you does NOT
constitute an emergency situation?  That the operator should wait
until you finish chatting with Aunt Edna before calling you?

Of the two examples I cited, the first is merely hypothetical, the
second was a call I overheard on a local radio talk show.  A woman was
discussing with the talk show host (a therapist) how her brother's
suicidal tendencies were affecting her life, when the operator broke
in and asked her to hang up so the suicide prevention hotline could
contact her.

Both of these situations are ones that I would certainly consider an
emergency.  I'm not saying that I would be called upon to respond to a
fire or automobile accident, but that the need to contact me regarding
the imminence of death to my immediate family DOES constitute an
emergency.


Greg Andrews   |   UUCP: {apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!gandrews
               |   Internet: gandrews@netcom.COM