BGP QOTD: How many times/how often do you call 911?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I was driving back to my office from a jobsite with a coworker this morning (I was driving) and there was a car sitting the parking lot of an apartment complex with flames licking out from under the hood - and no one in the car, or anywhere outside or near the car.

 

I told my coworker he should call 911, and after he finished doing so, he said that that was the first time he'd ever called 911. I'd guess his age at early-30s.

 

Got me to thinking here how many times I've called 911 in the past. I'd guess that it ends up being maybe once every couple of years that I'll call...maybe once a year, maybe. More often than not its for something totally random like that, or a bad wreck that I've witnessed. I can only think of twice where I called for medical emergencies. Probably no more than a dozen times total in my life, if I had to guess.

 

How about you? How many times would you guess you've ever called 911? Or how often, would you say?

[bugatti]

Twice I have called. The first time I was maybe 10 years old. I called and immediately hung up the phone just being stupid. The operator called back and I was rightfully scolded by my parents.

 

The second time was 20 years ago or so. I was driving through town and I was behind a wreckless, without a doubt drunk driver. Dude was swerving, ran over a stop sign, and putting lives in danger. I call and get transferred to a different operator. The second operator puts me on hold for a good five minutes. By this time I had arrived home, forgotten the license plate number, and put out by the process. Then, they disconnect me. What a joke.

 

I have great admiration for 911 operators. That is a brutally tough job and even though they are not there in person, they are normally the first respondent to horrific scenarios. No way I could do that job.

[TheDeuce]

Maybe three or four times ever. Always for something random.

[MJAlltheWay24]

Once, my dad had a stroke about 5 years ago.

[nkypete]

I have called 911 for a variety of reasons - medical emergencies, accidents on incident, driver swerving between lanes. I even called 911 for seeing extremely erratic behavior from a pedestrian on the sidewalk.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

This was what I called for the last time. Back in April. I was waiting to turn onto Breckenridge Road here in Louisville and saw this car coming at 60+ mph down the road, run off the side of the road that you can kinda see over on the right side of the photo, and then flip. The driver (clearly drunk) jumped out immediately after the wreck and ran off.

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I have called 911 for a variety of reasons - medical emergencies, accidents on incident, driver swerving between lanes. I even called 911 for seeing extremely erratic behavior from a pedestrian on the sidewalk.

 

I called for a "pedestrian" a number of years back....some idiot guy walking across the I-75 Brent Spence Bridge in morning rush hour traffic.

[TheDeuce]

This was what I called for the last time. Back in April. I was waiting to turn onto Breckenridge Road here in Louisville and saw this car coming at 60+ mph down the road, run off the side of the road that you can kinda see over on the right side of the photo, and then flip. The driver (clearly drunk) jumped out immediately after the wreck and ran off.

 

I'm assuming the car was stolen, otherwise running away doesn't make much sense. :lol2:

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I'm assuming the car was stolen, otherwise running away doesn't make much sense. :lol2:

 

It wasn't. After talking to the cop, he told me it was important that I could actually "place the driver in the car". Apparently the normal run-around the police get in that situation is that the driver flees, gets back home, then when the cops trace the car back to him via registration, he lies and says, "Oh, it was stolen from me. I was at home. I wasn't driving it anywhere."

 

They ended up needing me to sign a legal statement with a physical description of the driver that said I actually witnessed the wreck and witnessed the driver climbing out of the driver's side of the car immediately after the wreck. That way they could use my statement against him once charges were pressed.

[TheDeuce]

It wasn't. After talking to the cop, he told me it was important that I could actually "place the driver in the car". Apparently the normal run-around the police get in that situation is that the driver flees, gets back home, then when the cops trace the car back to him via registration, he lies and says, "Oh, it was stolen from me. I was at home. I wasn't driving it anywhere."

 

They ended up needing me to sign a legal statement with a physical description of the driver that said I actually witnessed the wreck and witnessed the driver climbing out of the driver's side of the car immediately after the wreck. That way they could use my statement against him once charges were pressed.

 

Glad you were there so he couldn't get away with it.

[sweet16]

I’ve never called 911.

[CincySportsFan]

I've been involved with 3 callings, but have not actually dialed the phone in any of them.

 

The first occurred when I was coming home on US 25 from a basketball game one night. Could see an oncoming car swerving back and forth before going off the side of the road and flipping over. Was sort of surreal, as since it was pitch black out, the only thing you could see were the headlights doing some sort of dance. By the time I got up to it, the car had stopped and was on its top. There was a lady behind me that stopped too. I told her to call 9-1-1, while I went and checked on the driver. Was a eerie feeling reaching into the car to see if I could "feel" the driver, and not being able to. Then I realized with the car being on its top, he should actually be on the other side. Turns out the guy fell asleep coming home from work. He ended up being okay.

 

The second time was when my son was a month old. (He was 6 weeks early to begin with, so was still a tiny guy.) It was probably around 7 o'clock at night, and my wife was feeding him while we were watching tv. She looked down and saw that his face was starting to turn blue. I grabbed him and told her to call 9-1-1. I started CPR on him and got him to spit up some milk before he started breathing on his own again. After a long night at Children's, he ended up being okay, too. Turned 16 back in December.

 

The final time was about 7 or 8 years ago. Was driving the family through Cincinnati on 75. Had just gone under the Ezzard Charles overpass and looked to my left (I was in the far left lane) and saw a car in the middle of flipping over. Again, told my wife to call. She put the phone on speaker phone (since she didn't actually see what had happened.). I told the operator what I had saw, and that the driver had probably missed the exit ramp on the south-bound side and rolled down the hill. I remember two distinct questions she asked me. The first was, had I stopped to assist? I told her I was going 60 mile an hour, in the opposite direction with traffic behind me, and had a cement barrier in between me and the other side...so, no, I did not stop. The next question was, how could I be sure that the car had flipped? I told her that since I could see the complete undercarriage of the car, I was pretty sure of it. My next response was probably a little snarky now that I think about it. I told her if she didn't believe me, she could wait another 30 seconds and listen to the other people that were sure to call in who were following the guy/gal who wrecked. She then verified my name and phone number, thanked me and hung up. Never knew what happened to the driver. I assume there was no fatality, as there was nothing on the news that night.

[I gotta go to work]

Once. My neighbor's deck in the apartments I used to live in was on fire. He had a deers head in his grill and apparently used way too much lighter fluid. Luckily it was put out before spreading to other parts of the buildings.

[rjs4470]

I've called several times for injuries one of my players has suffered in practice or games. At least 3 times I can remember. Called once to have the fire department come to my house when I smelled electrical smoke, but couldn't find the source. It ended up being the refrigerator. Called it a more than a few times during my retail career for incidents that happened in the store....once when pepper spray was discharged in the building, more than a few times for thefts, fights outside (I used to work in inner city Philly). Overall, I've probably been involved in a dozen or so 911 calls.

[mcpapa]

Not yet.