From: harris@progress.com (John Harris)
Newsgroups: misc.emerg-services
Subject: Re: Negligent Dispatcher in MA?
Date: 9 Oct 92 17:11:13 GMT
Reply-To: John.Harris@progress.com
Organization: Progress Software Corporation

In article <9210070357.AA00425@deepthought.cs.utexas.edu>, PLAWS@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (Peter Laws) writes:
|> 
|> Anyone in Mass. have info on a Lexington (?) FD Fire Alarm Operator that didn't
|> dispatch EMS when he should have and "caused" a woman's death???
|> 
|> ================================================================================
|> Peter Laws              |"The '90s are gonna make the '60s|   pcl@engr.uark.edu
|> n5uwy@ka5bml.ar.usa.noam| look like the '50s"--D. Hopper  |plaws@uafsysb.bitnet

The incident involved a civilian dispatcher for the Lexington Mass. Fire
department.  I don't recall the exact dates, but it went something like this:

05:30 - New England Telephone operator receives call for help from a young
        woman saying she has been stabbed.  Operator connects the woman to
        Lexington FD dispather, who answers after 3 rings (he was in the
        bathroom at the time of the call, and was the only person awake
        at that hour).

        Dispatcher hears woman saying she was assaulted and needs help.  She
        attempts to give her address, but her voice is so weak that the
        dispatcher is unable to hear it.  Hearing nothing, and after repeated
        attempts to raise the victim again, he hangs up.  NOTE:  He did not
        ask the operator for the phone number, or any other information B4
        hanging up.  (Lexington does not have 911, or caller-id services.)

        After hanging up, he plays the recorded call back four or five times
        in an attempt to obtain the address without success.  At this time,
        it was reported that he considered this call "could have been" a
        hoax - this could explain why he made no further attempts to trace
        the call, or notify his supervisor or the police.

06:30 - Dispatcher's supervisor (Fire Dept Capt.) talked about the call with
        the dispatcher and listened to the tape.  The dispatcher claims he
        played the whole tape, while the Captain states that he only heard
        the end of the tape where the dispather repeatedly said "mam...".
        No further action was taken....

10:30 - Another dispatcher, while reviewing the log, noted the occurance of
        the call at 5:30 for "A woman stabbed or assaulted" and decides to
        play the tape back for himself.  After a number of tries, he is able
        to obtain an address, and contacts police with the information.

        When the police arrived, they found a woman in her early 20's dead.

At this time, I believe the dispatcher is still suspended w/o pay.  An
independent study conducted at the request of the town has recommended
that the dispatcher be terminated, and the Captain receive a lesser
form of repremand (due to the fact that he did not investigate the call
further).

This incident has put the plan to implement a statewide E-911 system on the
front page of most newspapers - a plan which has been kicking around for the
past 5 years (at least) and is currently slated to be implemented sometime
in `94 (I think).

In the past few weeks, Lexington FD has added some type of telephone trace
capability (not caller-id I'm told), and in the first week, it was used 15
times.  9 of the 15 times used, the caller was sometime testing out the
speed-dial button on the telephone :)

-John H, EMT (and Lexington Resident)
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