A Strange Experience

[Guest guest]

Yesterday I was in a major metropolitan land county near Washington,

DC. I came across a serious MVA with injuries a few seconds after it

happened (I heard the all too distinctive squeal of brakes, and the

crunch). I placed a cell call to 9-1-1, and was puzzled by the following:

First, the phone rang more than 20 times before the call taker answered and

asked, " What is your emergency? " I told her, and gave the location, and

that there were most likely injuries (it was a broadside collision in an

intersection between a mini-van, and a car which was a total wreck, and it

was clear someone hit the windshield). Without any further questions she

told me she was transferring me to Fire Rescue. Perhaps 20 seconds

elapsed, and I had to repeat the entire thing to the next call taker. He

answered, " Fire Rescue, " listened to my report, and thanked me for

calling. I know he had no information about the incident because once he

heard the location he did not say they were already responding, but that

they would be on the way, and then asked for the call back info. I should

note that the first call taker did not ask for my name or phone number.

Now my questions:

Do your agencies have standards covering the time to answer a call? Now

keep in mind, this is a major county, with centralized County Police, Fire,

and EMS services. I am familiar with their communications center, which is

pretty extensive, and state-of-the-art. It seems that 90 seconds is a long

time to answer a 9-1-1 call (this was 6:30PM). Second, would any of your

agencies have taken the information only to transfer the call, not pass

anything on, and not ask for call back information.

I will give Fire Rescue credit, they were on the scene with a paramedic

unit in less than two minutes following my second conversation (there is a

hospital based unit about a mile away). The rescue rig arrived about a

minute later, and two County Police units a minute after that (so the

police were dispatched, which puzzles me further about why the call was

transferred instead of making all the notifications from the original call).

Just curious how you would have handled this, as it seemed an unusual

procedure to me.