New Jersey, 911 and Me

[AnklePocket]

Thought I'd share my 911 experience of yesterday with ya'all:
I was driving up the Garden State Parkway when sometime around noon or so a car a few hundred feet in front of me pulled over and stopped dead in the left hand lane at mile marker 155.1 with cars behind it going 70 mph. Those cars from behind took mildly evasive manuevers and all was well, but it looked like a serious disaster in the making with the stopped vehicle taking up the entire lane (not to mention whatever serious problem may have caused them to stop short in the first place).
Being of civic duty presence of mind I called 911 from my cell phone. The operator seemed to not be able to hear me so I said, "Can you hear me?". He said, "No!" and hung up. I called back and they put me through to the state police. It rang about 15 times or so until the ring converted to a busy signal. This repeated itself 2 more times until I gave up. I called back 10 minutes later and got a number to the Bergen County Police where I reported the incident.
Of course, maybe 911 was inundated with calls about the same incident, but I kinda don't think so. Hope I never have to rely on 911.

 

[TheeBadOne]

A more important point is that a cell phone is not the same as a telephone. It is a 2 way radio, subject to interference, dead spots, tech problems, etc. Also, the routing of 911 calls by cell phone varies quite a bit. If you do get through always know how to accurately describe where you are calling from as the call center may be quite a ways away.

 

[Standing Wolf]

The one and only time I tried to call the California Highway Patrol from a road side box, the telephone rang and rang and rang without answer for over ten minutes.

 

[Pendragon]

I was driving from Sacramento to Yuba city about 3 years ago.

Saw a fire along the road - in a dry summer mind you - this could be a problem.

Used my company cell to call 911...

After 10 minutes of ringing, I gave up.

If we had had a life threatenening emergency we would be hosed!

 

[PATH]

You don't need a gun simply call 911!:banghead: The previous posts show just how safe we are with the 911 system.

 

[Salpalinja]

Here the approximate response time from police is 20 minutes, and it varies from lapplands 1-2 hours to larger cities 2-5 minutes.

So if there are 2 BG and they take turns stabbing you 30 times in one minute, you only approx. suffer 600 wounds That is if someone called the police.....