Cedar Rapids Weather
911 Call Goes To Wrong Operator, Man DiesBy Justin Foss, Reporter
CEDAR RAPIDS - We depend on 911 to save us if we're in trouble. But last weekend the system didn't work quite right, and a woman is wondering if that played a role in her husband's death.
Both dispatchers and phone company officials aren't sure what happened. The story starts with a frantic call for help that went to the wrong operator: Dispatcher: Ma’am? 301 7th Avenue where? Caller: 304 7th Avenue Clear Lake… fast… Dispatcher: Are you in Clear Lake? Caller: Yes Ma’am. Dispatcher: Okay, you’re going to have to hang up and try 9-1-1 one more time. That call came from a woman whose husband was lying in bed next to her around 2:30 last Sunday morning, he was having trouble breathing. She used her U.S. Cellular cell phone to call for help. The woman was expecting help from Clear Lake. What she got was a dispatcher 145 miles away at the Linn County Sheriff's Department, unable to transfer the call, and unable to call an ambulance. "All we really know is we were getting routed some wireless calls that were not in our jurisdiction," said CAPT David Knott with the Linn County Sheriff's Department. Knott told TV9 that his department received 20-25 calls from outside their area. Some were in places like Davenport, Western Illinois and Clear Lake. The 911 system in Iowa works differently for cell phones than landlines. When someone calls 9-1-1 from a cell phone, that call goes to a router in Des Moines and then out to the nearest dispatcher. The router in Des Moines is operated by Qwest. Qwest spokesperson Kara Neuverth told TV9, "Qwest never got the call." That means this particular 911 call bypassed the system. Phone companies didn't have information about the other 20-25 calls. The woman's phone is from U.S. Cellular, with a North Iowa number. Kevin Schuster is a U.S. Cellular spokesperson. He told TV9, "We're looking into the problem." At least 50 seconds passed from the time the woman called and got Linn County, to when she finally got help on the line in Clear Lake. But, by that time the man had died. The victim's mother told TV9 that doctors aren't sure what killed him, and they don't know if those extra 50 seconds would have helped. Meanwhile, 9-1-1 officials stress the system is safe. Email Justin Foss at Justin.Foss@kcrg.com More Good Stuff |
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