911- Hold, please

[otis33]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 12:06am

I had reason to call 911 this afternoon, for something that thankfully wasn't life threatening - but help was needed none the less. After ringing for a while, an automated system answered. The system asked me a series of questions and wanted me to either push 1 or say "one" for the first option, and so on. When I did, the system put me on hold. I finally hung up when someone else got through a little quicker. God forbid someone have a dire emergency and are unable to answer or push the right button.

Thanks for listening/reading.

[lilprima2b]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 12:23am

I had to call 911 the other day for the first time in my life (babysitting with a friend and the parent forgot to mention that the two-year-old holds his breath until he passes out sometimes) and it rang once before the baby did start breathing again, so I hung up, expecting a return call. I never got one. It scared me.

[Popular]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 12:26am

I felt your same frustration a little while back when dialing 911 after ESCAPING A BANK ROBBERY!!! only to find out that if you call 911 from your cell you get transfered to the California Highway Patrol and put on hold. So let that be a lesson - IF YOU HAVE TO CALL FROM A CELL CALL SOMEONE NEAR A LANDLINE TO CALL 911 FOR YOU FIRST AND THEN TRY YOURSELF!

Glad to hear your situation ended fine, at least it sounded as if it did.

[wonderwaiter]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 12:39am

For YEARS here in my town, the police department did not list any non-emergency numbers, so if you had to call the police department for any little thing you had to dial 911. This might not have been a big deal, but there are all sorts of things that get routed through the police department. It always bothered me to have to call 911 over petty things like ABC cards.

Last year, we had a big scandal over 911 calls going unanswered, so that problem has been taken care of finally.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 1:08am

Heh, that happened to my dad once when I was in the car with him. It wasn't a *serious* emergency (a bull in the middle of a busy 4-lane road blocking traffic) but still, calling 911 and getting put on hold is pathetic.

"Please hold as you're being beaten to death. We care about your call."

Popular, are you serious? There's a $4 a month 911-service charge on my cell phone bill and it doesn't even go to 911?!

[Elphaba]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 1:11am

um otis, if it wasn't life-threatening, why call 911?

[otis33]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 1:26am

On occasion there are situations where the people involved may not be in a position to handle an injury or incident. Is there someone else we should have called? Other than my Mom, who told me to call 911.

[Popular]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 1:40am

orangeskittles - unfortunately I'm VERY serious! I hung up when the police arrived. I would hate to know how much longer I would've been on hold for.

[YessicaB]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 4:47am

When I was on vacation in Venice a girl stumbled over someone else in her Inline Skates and couldn't move and I called 911, but I was on hold for like 15 min...

It's not any better here in Germany though. An American friend of mine called 110 here (the equivalent) and asked "Sprechen sie Englisch", do you speak English? and they just jung up on her!!!!! And EVERYBODY here speaks English!

[Elphaba]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 10:17am

was only asking otis, it really wasn't clear. If she told you to call, then you definately call.

I guess we're lucky where I live, the two times I've had to call they've answered immediately.

But then there was the case, not sure where it was, was all over the news where the kid called in cause his mother was dying, and they thought he was joking, and ignored it. She died.......really ridiculous.
If called they should go, if not an emergency, the person calling should be fined......I mean if it's someone fooling around.

[otis33]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 11:55am

No harm No foul, Elphaba.

Yeah, I read that story about the little boy who was ignored and ended up watching his Mother die. Beyond heartbreaking.

The thought went through my head while I was on hold - what if a young child is trying to get through, and then is asked a bunch of automated questions. The poor kid isn't going to know what to do.

Also, don't mean to bag on 911 operators. I can only imagine how hard/tense of a job it can be.

[TheatreDiva612]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 12:18pm

Whenever I have had to call 911, they answered immediately. Also, I remember I was a passenger in a really bag wreck, and I don't know who called 911, but they were there immediately. I felt like it happened, then they appeared..

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 6/13/06 at 12:33pm

my dad's a volunteer firefighter and emt, so we have both a fire and police scanner and you should hear some of the stuff people call 911 for. what sucks the most about it, is that you're taking up town resources for your paper cut... while the medical truck is out putting a bandaid on your finger, someone in a car accident who really needs the help has to wait.

there are non life threatening things that warrent a 911 call though. in this town, if your basement is flooded with more than 3 inches of water, the only way to get it taken care of is to call 911 to get the fire depertment. after it rains alot, we can sometimes get 20 of those calls a day.