More failures of the system

[unixronin]

Specifically, in this case, the 911 system.  A 34-year-old Chattanooga, Tennessee mother called 911 to report a kitchen fire and request assistance from the fire department ... as a matter of fact, she called 22 six¹ times over a 27-minute period.  Nobody answered, because of the four 911 dispatchers supposedly on duty, three were simultaneously on break and only one was answering the phones.  Eventually, family members ran to the fire station half a mile away to get help.

The article goes on to state that last month, 20 percent of "more than 10,650" calls to 911 in Chattanooga were not answered, and between January and October 2005 there were more than 27,000 unanswered 911 calls.  Responsible officials tried to explain it away as "caller hangups and repeated calls".

It gets worse.  Turns out even if you do get a 911 dispatcher in Chattanooga to answer the phone, there's no guarantee anyone will actually be dispached to help you.  A 70-year-old man in northern Hamilton County had to have his daughter drive him to the hospital after he severed an artery in his arm while working in his shop, called 911, gave them his location and told them he was injured and bleeding profusely ... and no-one came.

[1]  plutosonium pointed out that I'd misinterpreted this in the article.  22 total calls to the 911 dispatch service went unanswered during the 27 minutes of the fire, but only 6 of those were regarding the fire.  No information is given regarding the other 14 unanswered calls.

Comments

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

I read that. 22 calls in 27 minutes unanswered, but only 6 of them were from the house with the fire.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, I appear to have misread that. I guess I read it as "22 calls about the fire", but I suppose if they didn't answer them, they don't know what any of them were about except the ones they've been told, do they?