911:: Re: PowerPhone

[Guest guest]

At 04:36 PM 02/26/2001 -0500, Bob Battis asked:

>Would it be possible (for those of us that might have missed it) for someone

>to please post the text of what was said by Mr. Salafia in the press? Or,

>would it be possible for someone to point us in the direction of the quotes

>in the media so that we all can read it again?

Here it is:

Published Tuesday, February 20, 2001, in the Miami Herald

Mixed review for 911 staffers

BMW driver's call put in spotlight

BY LUISA YANEZ

lyanez@...

Two national experts in the handling of 911 emergency calls listened Monday

to the tape of Karla Gutiérrez's frantic call and came to different

conclusions: One gave the dispatcher high marks, and the other said she was

``too fixated'' on determining Gutiérrez's location.

Willett, senior instructor of 911 operators with Public Safety

Training Consultants in Redwood City, Calif., said finding a caller's

location is part of dispatcher training. ``It's hard to judge without all

the facts in place, but overall, I am impressed with the attempts that she

made,'' Willett said. ``It's an obvious tragedy, and the call taker did a

reasonable job. Given the situation, I'd give her an A.''

Salafia, president of Madison, Conn.-based PowerPhone, agreed with

that assessment after reading a transcript, but changed his mind after

listening to a tape provided by The Herald. ``This is Monday morning

quarterbacking, but the dispatcher was too fixated on where [Gutiérrez] was

and didn't pay attention to other signals,'' said Salafia, whose

company is one of the leading trainers for 911 operators. ``I don't want to

beat up on an individual, but the dispatcher should have pressed her about

getting out of the car. The woman is obviously hysterical. She knows

herself she's in trouble.''

Gutiérrez, 32, of Miramar, apparently drowned when her BMW sank in a canal

off Florida's Turnpike just after 5 a.m. Friday. She was headed home. The

Florida Highway Patrol said evidence was consistent with someone who fell

asleep behind the wheel. Her cellular call to 911 lasted about 3 1/2 minutes.

Miami-Dade Police have maintained that the operator handled the call

properly. ``There's nothing more to comment about it,'' a police spokesman,

Detective Rudy Espinosa, said Monday.

Tony Gómez, Gutiérrez's fiance, has criticized the 911 operators for not

giving Gutiérrez specific instructions on how to get out of her sinking

1998 BMW. ``During the entire call no one tells her to get out of the

car,'' said Gómez, a New York City police officer.

On Monday, The Herald provided the experts with transcripts and played them

an audiotape of Gutiérrez's 911 call from her cellular phone. During the

call, Gutiérrez grew increasingly panicked about her predicament.

Immediate action by Gutiérrez was required, Salafia said, but the operator

may have missed that. No one ever asked her whether she knew how to swim,

he said. Over and over she tried to get a fix on Gutiérrez's location.

Eleven times, the 911 operator told Gutiérrez, ``to calm down.'' The

operator concentrated on ``the where and not the what,'' Salafia said.

Salafia said the unidentified dispatcher should have asked Gutiérrez

questions such as: Why couldn't she get out of the car? Could she find a

way out? The operator did ask Gutiérrez at least five times if she could

get out, receiving the same fearful response from

Gutiérrez: ``The water is coming in.'' That should have been a clue that

Gutiérrez's time was limited, Salafia said. ``Even if you get a unit there

in four to six minutes, in this case, that might be too late for this

woman,'' Salafia said.

``This is all in hindsight, remember.'' Because she was calling from a

cellular telephone, all that showed on the operators' screen was her

cellular telephone carrier. No location. No name. ``A 911 operator's

primary role is to find out where you are and to get you help,'' Salafia

said. ``Those first few minutes of the call are crucial. The operator has

to glean from you the level of danger you're in.'' In other words, he said,

if a house is on fire, they might instruct you to get out. If it's a

domestic call, they might tell you to get to safe spot.

Dispatchers must get essential information, like location, first, Willett

said. ``She did all the things she was trained to do,'' Willett said. ``If

she had told the woman to swim out, and she didn't know how to swim, she

could have been in trouble for that. ``She was trying to find the quickest

answer.''

When Gutiérrez mentioned Coconut Grove, the county operator rang up the

city of Miami, a process that took 25 seconds. The original operator stayed

on the line, a move Willett praised. Willett said Gutiérrez's demeanor may

have thrown off the operator.

At the start of her call, Gutiérrez sounded calm, even bothering to spell

out her first name. Gutiérrez politely tells the 911 operator: ``Hi. I

just got into an accident. I bumped into the railing. I'm sinking in the

water.''

Cellular calls are frustrating to dispatchers, said Schildknecht,

assistant chief of Broward County Fire Rescue. ``They don't get a location

of the person on their screen,'' Schildknecht said. ``This call was unusual

because the actual person in need was calling. Usually, our cellular phone

calls come from witnesses.''

<end text>

Happy to be here, proud to serve.

Olmstead

Communications Supervisor

~on the Central California coastline~

" Not presumed to be an official statement of my employing agency. "

Home E-mail: mailto:gryeyes@...

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