A consultant’s report has found that New York City’s 911 system is troubled by delays and errors that endanger callers in an emergency.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg released an edited version of the report Friday.
The administration is fighting legal efforts to force it to release earlier versions of the report. It’s not clear how the 133-page document has been altered from its draft form.
The city has appealed a judge’s ruling that it must release the drafts of the document. The case is pending in court.
The final version of the report says call operators waste time repeating questions and use inconsistent questioning procedures.
It says the recently overhauled system sends some responders to the wrong address and slows fire and medical dispatchers’ efforts to give instructions to callers.
(Source: NBC New York)
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2 Responses
I’m sure I’m not the only one who can tell a horror story, but I’ll say it anyway. Basically there was an emergency that was of life and death importance on the outer bridge for which I called 911. After explaining what was going on I was asked which borough I was in. Flustered, I replied that I was on the outer bridge. I was extremely surprised to hear the dispatcher ask me again what borough the outer bridge is in. We went back and forth at it a couple times!
Do you mean The Outerbridge Crossing, which connects Staten Island with Perth Amboy, New Jersey?
Outerbridge is one word.
From Wikipedia:
The bridge was named for Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge (sometimes pronounced “ooterbridge”) the first chairman of the then-Port of New York Authority and a resident of Staten Island. Rather than call it the “Outerbridge Bridge” the span was labeled a “crossing”, but many New Yorkers and others mistakenly assume the name comes from the fact that it is the most remote bridge in New York City and the southernmost crossing in New York state.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outerbridge_Crossing