LVFD

FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE

PAGE 12

 EXTRA - EXTRA - EXTRA  -  April 2004

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Cellular Problem!

There are times when you better dial fire or police directly rather than use 9-1-1.

When you dial 9-1-1 on your cellular, the call does not go directly to the local fire or police station.   In many areas, 9-1-1 calls are answered by the California Highway Patrol and it doesn't matter if you are driving on the freeway or parked just outside a fire station. The Highway Patrol operator will ask you about the nature of the emergency and then transfer your call to the appropriate agency. 

The problem is that your emergency cellular call may be delayed for a significant amount of time before it is answered.   Most of the problem occurs because dozens of motorists will be reporting a single traffic accident and there are dozens of accidents. Dispatchers can be quicly overburdened. If you are trying to use your cell phone to report an intruder at the same time as an accident, you may have a 15 minute wait till your call is answered and then forwarded to the local police department.

Instead of dialing 9-1-1 on your cell phone, you could have dialed the local police department's emergency number and the call would have gone directly to them. Get the emergency number by calling on the business number ahead of time and then program the emergency number into your cell phone so you will have it, if needed. In La Verne that emergency number is (909) 593-1303 for paramedics, fire or police. Obviously, this doesn't help if you are calling for fire or police in a different city.

When you use a regular phone to report an emergency, use 9-1-1 and the call will automatically be routed to the closest fire or police dispatch. They will even have the address of that phone on their screen when the call is received.

Please Help Us ......

We are receiving more and more calls about freeway accidents which we can't locate. The problem occurs when well-meaning motorists report accidents on their cellular, but by the time they get through to CHP, they are 15 minutes down the freeway and give their current location as the approximate location of the accident. Instead, try to remember the closest off-ramp to the accident. Thank you.