911 rescue delayed by inaccurate position info

On scanner a few nights ago I monitored a Southern California fire
department as they searched for a woman who ran her car off the road
in the dark. She had a good cell phone connection with the 911 call
taker but was disoriented, panicky, and had no idea of her location
other than that she was along a certain highway, within sight of a
lake and an airport. The search area was about 30 miles long. There
were several spots that might fit the bill. One fire engine even
checked around a sewage plant in case the victim was seeing the
treatment ponds. Two helicopters were up, looking with night vision
and FLIR equipment. It was slow going, though. The lady wasn't making
much sense and the call taker had trouble getting her to calm down and
follow instructions.

T-Mobile got an estimated position. They knew what tower the caller
was using, and in addition were able to narrow down her location to a
3 mile radius. An airport and lake were nearby, so it looked good.
However, when a copter hovered over the airport with all its lights
on, the victim didn't see it!

After 1 1/2 - 2 hours of hunting around in the dark, a sheriff's
copter finally spotted the lady's car. She was miles from the highway
she supposedly had been traveling on. Regarding that "airport", there
wasn't one nearby. Also, the location from T-Mobile was 9.8 miles off.

Rescuers found the lady uninjured and the car undamaged. She just
needed some guidance getting back on the pavement. What a frustrating
night!

--
Paul Hirose <jvcmz89uwf@earINVALIDthlink.net>
To reply by email remove INVALID

On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 23:08:06 GMT, "Paul Hirose"
<jvcmz89uwf@earINVALIDthlink.net> wrote:

>On scanner a few nights ago I monitored a Southern California fire
>department as they searched for a woman who ran her car off the road
>in the dark. She had a good cell phone connection with the 911 call
>taker but was disoriented, panicky, and had no idea of her location
>other than that she was along a certain highway, within sight of a
>lake and an airport. The search area was about 30 miles long. There
>were several spots that might fit the bill. One fire engine even
>checked around a sewage plant in case the victim was seeing the
>treatment ponds. Two helicopters were up, looking with night vision
>and FLIR equipment. It was slow going, though. The lady wasn't making
>much sense and the call taker had trouble getting her to calm down and
>follow instructions.
>
>T-Mobile got an estimated position. They knew what tower the caller
>was using, and in addition were able to narrow down her location to a
>3 mile radius. An airport and lake were nearby, so it looked good.
>However, when a copter hovered over the airport with all its lights
>on, the victim didn't see it!
>
>After 1 1/2 - 2 hours of hunting around in the dark, a sheriff's
>copter finally spotted the lady's car. She was miles from the highway
>she supposedly had been traveling on. Regarding that "airport", there
>wasn't one nearby. Also, the location from T-Mobile was 9.8 miles off.
>
>Rescuers found the lady uninjured and the car undamaged. She just
>needed some guidance getting back on the pavement. What a frustrating
>night!

What a stupid *****!

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 17:45:00 GMT, in alt.cellular, some idiot at the back of
the group named WM <webmaster@stormyNOSPAMranch.com> thought it would be
cool to say:

>>Rescuers found the lady uninjured and the car undamaged. She just
>>needed some guidance getting back on the pavement. What a frustrating
>>night!
>
> What a stupid *****!
>
That was a very mature, insightful remark; I can only hope something like
that happens to you, except I will pray they don't find you so you can
demonstrate how much better you are than a mere woman.

Unfortunately, you're probably too stupid to understand the sarcasm,
dumbass.

"WM" <webmaster@stormyNOSPAMranch.com> wrote in message
news:1h2ls1l39f18fcljvqeihlcracb06ullh6@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 23:08:06 GMT, "Paul Hirose"
> <jvcmz89uwf@earINVALIDthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >On scanner a few nights ago I monitored a Southern California fire
> >department as they searched for a woman who ran her car off the road
> >in the dark. She had a good cell phone connection with the 911 call
> >taker but was disoriented, panicky, and had no idea of her location
> >other than that she was along a certain highway, within sight of a
> >lake and an airport. The search area was about 30 miles long. There
> >were several spots that might fit the bill. One fire engine even
> >checked around a sewage plant in case the victim was seeing the
> >treatment ponds. Two helicopters were up, looking with night vision
> >and FLIR equipment. It was slow going, though. The lady wasn't making
> >much sense and the call taker had trouble getting her to calm down and
> >follow instructions.
> >
> >T-Mobile got an estimated position. They knew what tower the caller
> >was using, and in addition were able to narrow down her location to a
> >3 mile radius. An airport and lake were nearby, so it looked good.
> >However, when a copter hovered over the airport with all its lights
> >on, the victim didn't see it!
> >
> >After 1 1/2 - 2 hours of hunting around in the dark, a sheriff's
> >copter finally spotted the lady's car. She was miles from the highway
> >she supposedly had been traveling on. Regarding that "airport", there
> >wasn't one nearby. Also, the location from T-Mobile was 9.8 miles off.
> >
> >Rescuers found the lady uninjured and the car undamaged. She just
> >needed some guidance getting back on the pavement. What a frustrating
> >night!
>
> What a stupid *****!
> She should get On-Star, they can find you in 30 seconds!
>
>
>

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:52:10 -0500, "Duke" <gemduke@bellsouth.net>
wrote:

>
>"WM" <webmaster@stormyNOSPAMranch.com> wrote in message
>news:1h2ls1l39f18fcljvqeihlcracb06ullh6@4ax.com...
>> On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 23:08:06 GMT, "Paul Hirose"
>> <jvcmz89uwf@earINVALIDthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>> >On scanner a few nights ago I monitored a Southern California fire
>> >department as they searched for a woman who ran her car off the road
>> >in the dark. She had a good cell phone connection with the 911 call
>> >taker but was disoriented, panicky, and had no idea of her location
>> >other than that she was along a certain highway, within sight of a
>> >lake and an airport. The search area was about 30 miles long. There
>> >were several spots that might fit the bill. One fire engine even
>> >checked around a sewage plant in case the victim was seeing the
>> >treatment ponds. Two helicopters were up, looking with night vision
>> >and FLIR equipment. It was slow going, though. The lady wasn't making
>> >much sense and the call taker had trouble getting her to calm down and
>> >follow instructions.
>> >
>> >T-Mobile got an estimated position. They knew what tower the caller
>> >was using, and in addition were able to narrow down her location to a
>> >3 mile radius. An airport and lake were nearby, so it looked good.
>> >However, when a copter hovered over the airport with all its lights
>> >on, the victim didn't see it!
>> >
>> >After 1 1/2 - 2 hours of hunting around in the dark, a sheriff's
>> >copter finally spotted the lady's car. She was miles from the highway
>> >she supposedly had been traveling on. Regarding that "airport", there
>> >wasn't one nearby. Also, the location from T-Mobile was 9.8 miles off.
>> >
>> >Rescuers found the lady uninjured and the car undamaged. She just
>> >needed some guidance getting back on the pavement. What a frustrating
>> >night!
>>
>> What a stupid *****!
>> She should get On-Star, they can find you in 30 seconds!

And within 100 feet.

On Fri, 20 Jan 2006 01:46:40 GMT, WM <webmaster@stormyNOSPAMranch.com>
wrote:

>On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:52:10 -0500, "Duke" <gemduke@bellsouth.net>
>wrote:
>
>>
>>"WM" <webmaster@stormyNOSPAMranch.com> wrote in message
>>news:1h2ls1l39f18fcljvqeihlcracb06ullh6@4ax.com...
>>> On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 23:08:06 GMT, "Paul Hirose"
>>> <jvcmz89uwf@earINVALIDthlink.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> >On scanner a few nights ago I monitored a Southern California fire
>>> >department as they searched for a woman who ran her car off the road
>>> >in the dark. She had a good cell phone connection with the 911 call
>>> >taker but was disoriented, panicky, and had no idea of her location
>>> >other than that she was along a certain highway, within sight of a
>>> >lake and an airport. The search area was about 30 miles long. There
>>> >were several spots that might fit the bill. One fire engine even
>>> >checked around a sewage plant in case the victim was seeing the
>>> >treatment ponds. Two helicopters were up, looking with night vision
>>> >and FLIR equipment. It was slow going, though. The lady wasn't making
>>> >much sense and the call taker had trouble getting her to calm down and
>>> >follow instructions.
>>> >
>>> >T-Mobile got an estimated position. They knew what tower the caller
>>> >was using, and in addition were able to narrow down her location to a
>>> >3 mile radius. An airport and lake were nearby, so it looked good.
>>> >However, when a copter hovered over the airport with all its lights
>>> >on, the victim didn't see it!
>>> >
>>> >After 1 1/2 - 2 hours of hunting around in the dark, a sheriff's
>>> >copter finally spotted the lady's car. She was miles from the highway
>>> >she supposedly had been traveling on. Regarding that "airport", there
>>> >wasn't one nearby. Also, the location from T-Mobile was 9.8 miles off.
>>> >
>>> >Rescuers found the lady uninjured and the car undamaged. She just
>>> >needed some guidance getting back on the pavement. What a frustrating
>>> >night!
>>>
>>> What a stupid *****!
>>> She should get On-Star, they can find you in 30 seconds!
>
> And within 100 feet.
>

My remarks about this would not seek to degrade the woman, but I would
question her ability to operate a motor vehicle. The resolution of
this situation sounds like emergency services just pointed her back in
the right direction and set her back on her way, no problem. Why was
she not able to do this herself? She thought she was near a
nonexistant airport, and did not have a clue what road she was on?

She just needed assistance getting back on the pavement? Seriously,
was she old, drunk, or just mentaly challenged?

My criticism would be for your emergency services department that from
your description brought out a knee jerk reaction of everything in the
rescue inventory to aid one person who probably should not be
operating a motor vehicle at night in the first place.

Two frigging helicopters? Jeeze, thats a severe waste of resources. I
sincerely hope that emergency services forwards a request to your
department of motor vehicles to have this person's competency as a
driver evaluated on a timely basis.

The bottom line on all this 911 crap is that we as a society made it a
long way without "big brother" being there to bail us out every time
we lose our way to the corner market. Now, we cant do anything without
a dozen airbags in our cars, runflat tires, gps locating stuff in our
cars and phones, 911 service for or dogs, etc. We've become a
collective society of cry babies to whom self reliance is an alien
term we might have to go look up somewhere.

I wonder why the GPS didn't apparently work?

TMT

"Dean" <Dean@tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:uq32t1digl648n7m6di2amhli652cmelsq@4ax.com...
>
> She just needed assistance getting back on the pavement? Seriously,
> was she old, drunk, or just mentaly challenged?

I don't know about age. It was never mentioned. I'm sure no
intoxication was involved; the medic said there were no medical
issues. A fireman reported to the dispatcher that the woman panicked
because she was afraid of being stuck in the desert through the night.

The weather was dry, with a full moon high in a clear sky. The
location was near Lancaster, Calif., around the intersection of Ave. J
and 112th St. West. When they finally located the car, a copter
radioed the GPS coordinates.

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=...atum=nad83&u=7

The spot is a few miles outside town in a sparsely populated area, but
I wouldn't call it remote. There's an elementary school 3 miles away.

It's disappointing that the position from T-Mobile was 10 miles off,
especially since there was a nonstop connection with 911 for 2 hours.
We don't have 911 Phase II in this area yet; the dispatch center has
to contact the cell phone company to get a caller's location.

That was an unusual case. A bigger time waster for the fire department
is the person who witnesses an emergency, calls it in to 911, then
leaves the scene. It then becomes impossible for dispatchers to get
any updates or clarification. For example, firemen drive up and down
the highway looking for a "truck on fire", can't find anything, ask
the dispatcher if there's any more info. "Negative. Caller was a cell
phone passer-by." What probably happened was that a truck coming down
the mountain pulled over to cool its smoking brakes for a few minutes,
then got back on the road.

One day I listened as county fire and sheriff's departments cranked up
a search and rescue in the mountains for an airplane down. There were
several reports from motorists who saw a plane maneuvering strangely
as it disappeared behind a peak. They thought it must have been in
trouble and crashed. Unfortunately, all these people kept driving.
Based on what they could describe over their cell phones some miles
down the highway, there was a lot of uncertainty about where the plane
might have gone down. It would have greatly narrowed the search area
if some witnesses had pulled over and waited to get face to face with
responders: "I was right about here, saw the plane doing this, then it
went behind that peak."

The search went on for hours with ground units and a copter. They
never found anything. The cell phone definitely has pluses and minuses
for emergency responders!

--
Paul Hirose <jvcmz89uwf@earINVALIDthlink.net>
To reply by email remove INVALID