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Old 12-01-2019, 10:27 AM   #846
WhiteTiger
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubicon View Post
One comment and one question.

I understand a ping of 100m etc. May not be overly useful in an urban setting but a rural setting it can be a life saver. That will get you onto the right road or general location close enough that most times it would be pretty quick to locate the scene.
Very true, all of my experience has been with urban, rural is a different beast.

Quote:
Question.
Maybe this has changed but about 4 years ago we had an injury at a hockey game in Calgary. We called 911 for EMS. It was a City arena, we knew the name but not the address nor the cross streets. The 911 operator wanted a physical address, said they were unable to cross reference the arena name to a location. Is that true? Two things I have seen happen since then. First, most City facilities now have a location address clearly posted inside. Second is some minor hockey associations have mandated that teams carry a list of facilities with addresses included for quick reference.
Ah, addressing. The pet peeve/bane of every 911 operator.

Addressing is an odd beast with 911. First and foremost, it MUST BE RIGHT. Everyone can agree on that. Sending help to Stoney Tr and 16th Ave NW when the help is really needed at Stoney Tr and 16th Av NE would be, as you can imagine, a MAJOR problem.

How a 911 operator gets to the 'right' address has long been a battle, and is currently a legal battle. At current, we are required to ask you to tell us where you are, and then confirm it. Those two have to match. If they do not, and we proceed with the call, we can end up in serious legal hot water, even to the point of being fired.

You see this mostly when someone is reporting a drunk driver that they are behind, say:

Caller: I'm reporting a drunk driver! He's northbound on Deerfoot at Glenmore Tr SE
911: Can you repeat that intersection to verify, please?
Caller: Well, now he's at Deerfoot and Peigan.
911: Can you repeat that intersection to verify it, please?
Caller: Well, now we're at Deerfoot and 17th av! WHY IS THIS TAKING SO LONG!

And yet, with that conversation as above, you'll note that the address is not verified, and if something happened (say said drunk driver ends up killing someone) the 911 operator could be in a lot of trouble.

So we have to get the address right, and a lot of people don't know where they are. Or think they do, but they don't. The sheer number of times folks have called and gotten Marlborough Mall, Pacific Place Mall and Sunridge Mall mixed up would boggle your mind.

On top of all of this, we are not allowed to assume. You may be telling me that you are at the Frank McCool Arena, but you don't know the area so you aren't sure. You think that maybe some nearby cross streets are Lake Bonavista something-or-other, and "a road with an A name?" Until I am sure of where they are going, I can't send help (or I may be explaining to a board of inquiry why I'm sending units without being sure of where they are going and wasting resources or worse, causing someone's death due to mismanaged resources or causing a delay in response).

I am also not allowed to 'suggest' to you. Folks in stressful situations are more prone to suggestion and are known to just agree with whatever they are presented with. So if you tell me that you are at Frank McCool arena, but have never been there before, and I say "Oh, that's at Lake Bonavista Dr and Acadia Dr SE, right?" You are almost guaranteed to say "Yes" or "That sounds right" or some kind of agreement despite the fact that you don't actually know. If I assume wrong info off your info, and we're both wrong, again...it could be a mistake that costs lives.

This doesn't even start getting into places that change their names frequently, or that people know by a local nickname. Do you know where Crackmacs is? Could you tell a 911 operator? Could you verify it? Oh wait, it's a Circle K now, isn't it. Bars are really bad for this. I had folks calling about incidents at the "Crack Alley" despite it being renamed to Marquee for some time. If you aren't a local or don't know that "Crack Alley" used to be "The Back Alley" and where it is...we've got a problem.

And through all this...seconds matter.

Well, I've rambled off on quite a tangent here. Sorry about that. Addressing is a major, major issue/concern with 911.

It's quite possible that the 911 operator wasn't able to cross reference the name of the city facility to a working street address. Or perhaps they were able to, but still needed more information from you to confirm it for a multitude of reasons.

It's good to hear that City facilities now have their address clearly posted for the public to see. That is vital information in case of an emergency. I've long thought that every single business should, by every public accessible phone, have (somewhere on/near the phone) that phone's number and the building address. It would speed up and help so much in an emergency when seconds matter.

This is why I suggest, every time I'm asked what is the most important thing someone can do to be prepared if they have to call 911, that folks start playing the "Where Am I Right Now" game. Take a few moments, when you are going about your day and stop and think "If I had to call 911 right this second for a life or death emergency, how would I tell them where I am to get that help?" It's not as easy as one thinks, but it's a good habit to develop. And yes, I do this on a regular basis, too. The amount of places I went that I had no idea where they actually were was pretty astounding. We all get into ruts. I know HOW to drive to my best friends house, but I can't name any of the smaller roads I use to get there anymore. We get 'used to' going places, and forget how to tell someone where they are.

911 operators (mostly) live in the city they are working in. I have a pretty decent working knowledge of the geography of the city. I live in the NE and almost never travel to the SW, especially not deep SW. I am familiar with a lot of the 'local' names for places in the NE, and have a very good knowledge of the smaller places in the area. If you are calling about somewhere in the NE, I probably know what you are talking about. You call about the SW, unless you have at least some cross streets or something, I may not be able to help as much. You have to help us help you as much as you can.

This is why the address/location is the MOST IMPORTANT part of calling 911. If you are unable to say anything else, get the address out, and get it right. There is no part of a 911 call more important than the right address. Period.

Last edited by WhiteTiger; 12-01-2019 at 10:51 AM.
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