On a Friday night in October, Scott Aston called 911. Complaining of shortness of breath and head pain, emergency dispatchers tried to get additional information. Aston was able to give an address, then collapsed and the phone cut out.
Provo police found Aston dead in his apartment four days later.
Following an almost five-month review, Provo City officials announced Monday that a miscommunication between an emergency dispatcher and Aston prevented emergency medical response from finding the dying man.
While talking with the emergency dispatcher Oct. 1, Aston told the male dispatcher the apartment number was “nine fifteen.” However, the call-taker heard the number “nine fifty” and because the call was made from a cellular phone, Aston's address didn't appear on the call-taker's screen for verification.
The system used by 911 Communications Center automatically displays the landline addresses. However cell phones rely on transmission towers and cannot be recognized with the same technology.
Despite repeating the address back to Aston with no correction, the call taker passed on the error to a dispatcher who sent paramedics to the address where they found only a care center facility.
After searching for 15 minutes, knocking on other neighborhood doors and calling Orem and Springville dispatchers to check for similar addresses, the search was called off.
Concerns from family members that they hadn't heard from their 30-year-old brother-in-law lead police to discover Aston's body four days later in his apartment.
This situation was a first in Provo and was something city officials said they're taking seriously. An investigation began in early November, which included disciplinary action for the call taker as well as a review of call-taking procedures in the dispatch center.
As policy, the city cannot comment on individual employees but Raylene Ireland with Provo Community Relations said of the two call-takers that night, one was a reserve worker who will not be called again and one was a city employee who was disciplined.
Provo police Capt. David Bolda said Provo’s 911 Communications Center now has reference cards at each of the six call stations, prompting the call taker to ask questions like: “What city are you in?” “What is your address?” “Is it a home, business or apartment?” as well as asking the caller to repeat each piece of information.
Numbers in response information will also be repeated individually, such as nine-five-zero or nine-one-five, to avoid dangerous miscommunication in the future.
Provo has also submitted a formal request for the Association of Public Communications Officers to come review the procedures for the 911 Communication Center.
Yet despite all the precautions on the call taker’s side, Bolda said the difficulty with emergency 911 calls from cell phones is the inability to trace the caller’s location.
As a step to alleviate this problem, Utah legislators passed House Bill 36 in 2004 that created a Utah 911 Committee in the Department of Public Safety as well as a 13-cent per month state fee on telephone services. This money goes into a statewide emergency service fund to create a system capable of locating wireless telephone callers.
The Provo emergency communications center receives and places more than 250,000 calls each year, with 40,000 of them being emergency calls. Bolda said of those 40,000 calls, 50 percent are from cell phones.
“Too many people assume when they dial 911 that someone is going to know where they are,” Bolda said about cell phone users. “It’s not the case.”
Another step in changing the current system is phasing out phones that are not GPS capable.
With Global Positioning System capability, signals are sent from a phone to a satellite then back down to a receiving station that helps pinpoint a general area where the call was made.
But this technology isn’t exact. Bolda stressed that 911 callers should know where they are and provide a street name or even a landmark to dispatchers.
Kevin Nelson, a salesman with Alert Cellular in Provo, said his company won’t even sell phones that aren’t GPS and E911 compatible.
“All of our phones come with that [E911 capability],” he said. “I don’t think we have any phones that don’t have it.”
The E911 is a dual-purpose rule to increase the effectiveness of wireless 911 calls, according to the FCC Web site.
Phase I requires that carriers report the telephone number of a wireless 911 caller and the location of the antenna that received the call. Phase II requires more precision and the pinpointing of a caller within 50 to 300 meters.
But despite any second-guessing about what could have happened, Provo Mayor Lewis Billings thanked emergency employees during a news conference Monday for their hard work.
“They get thousands of calls a year and for the most part do a stellar job,” he said. “We’ve never had a case with a similar result.”
Bolda said a dispatcher job is taxing. It requires workers to watch as many as five computer monitors, take multiple calls and switch mindsets rapidly, from tragic life-threatening situations to irate neighbors calling about barking dogs or loud music.
“In fairness, dispatching is an extremely stressful job,” Bolda said. “The average citizen couldn’t do it and I consider myself an average citizen. I couldn’t do it.”
INFO BOX:
CALLING 911 on a CELL
- Remember wireless 911 calls are different from land-line calls – operators cannot automatically identify your location
- Provide your name, location, cellular number and reason for calling
- Stay on the line and follow instructions
- Keep the phone fully charged at all times
- Have an alternate plan if the cell phone won’t work in an emergency.
- Make sure your address information is correct with your cell phone service provider. Check with your company to see if Law Enforcement can easily trace your number through the company in an emergency
- When purchasing or upgrading phones, be sure the phone is equipped with a GPS chip.
- If you use a cell phone as your home phone, make sure everyone in the home knows the address and how to contact 911, especially young children.
Copyright Brigham Young University 8 Mar 2005
