911 operators couldn't trace the location of a dying student's phone. It's a growing issue

[MULTIZ321]

911 operators couldn't trace the location of a dying student's phone. It's a growing issue.

911 operators couldn't trace the location of a dying student's phone. It's a growing issue

Student's garbled 911 call is the latest tragedy to plague US emergency call systems.

www.nzherald.co.nz

.


Richard

 

[bbodb1]

It seems odd this story originates from a New Zealand media source but nevertheless the problem is a very real one. Our present 911 system is not up to the current demand placed on it by a cellphone dominated society and this problem only gets worse each passing day as the number of cell phone users increase.

The most pressing question to answer is who is responsible for fixing this? AT&T? Verizon? The federal, state and/or local governments?

I think it is also worth remembering this 'problem ' is a result of progress.

 

[WVBaker]

Android users have a new 911 emergency location service

Google recently announced it’s expanding the life-saving Android Emergency Location Service (ELS) that debuted in 2016. It’s been available in 14 countries previously, but now it’s coming to the U.S.

It’s designed to pinpoint your exact location, so when you call 911 from an Android gadget, emergency responders can easily find you. Google said,”More than 80 percent of emergency calls come from mobile phones, but locating these phones can be challenging as traditional emergency location technologies can fail indoors or have a radius that’s too big to be useful.”

That’s why this feature is so important. It uses GPS, Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and sensors to identify your location. It works both indoors and outside with the same accuracy as Google Maps.

Android users have a new 911 emergency location service - Komando.com

How did we ever live before the invention of smartphones? They are such a big part of our lives now and in such a short period of time. They are not only handy for checking email and posting on social media, they’re even able to save your life in case of an emergency.

www.komando.com

 

[moonstone]

It could be the same problem for people with a VOIP phone line in their home. Many don't realize that often when 911 is called on a VIOP line the call wont automatically go to the nearest dispatch. Our neighbours got a VOIP line quite a few years ago. He was boasting about how cheap it was (same cost per year as his land line had been per month) and how great the transmission was. Then one day he thought he was having a heart attack. His DW called 911 and asked for an ambulance. When she gave the 911 operator their address the operator had never heard of the town, or the county, let alone the street! While she was explaining their location their son ran next door and used a land line to call 911. My DH (a firefighter/first responder) was at the house while the DW was still on the line trying to get the VOIP operator to understand where they were. It turned out the operator was in the USA (we are in Ontario, Canada)! Who knows how long it would have been if they had lived in a more rural area with no nearby neighbours. Thankfully the heart attack was mild and he is fine now.

I believe now there is a way to register or adjust settings on a VOIP line to enable the location to be detected automatically. I always have my location detection turned on for my cellphone in case of an emergency.

~Diane