Post by marty on May 29, 2006 17:48:04 GMT -5
this is from delaware daily times friday may 26, 2006
For more than two hours Thursday, 911 calls made from cell phones were not reaching an operator. Delaware County Emergency Services Director Edwin Truitt said the problem was discovered at 4:40 p.m. when a motorist tried to make a 911 call from a cell phone while driving in Chester.
The caller, who was not identified, flagged down a passing city policeman and told the officer about the problem. The nature of the emergency was not immediately disclosed.
The officer tried to make the call from his own cell phone, and that didn’t work either, according to Truitt.
"The cop then radioed us and told us about the problem," Truitt said.
To troubleshoot the system, Truitt had employees at the dispatch center in Middletown call family members and ask them to place 911 calls to the center from their cell phones. Truitt said all wireless carriers were used. None of the calls went through.
"Everybody in our system was experiencing the same problem," he said. "The common link was the Verizon network."
Truitt said Verizon owns the cell tower in King of Prussia that receives 911 calls. Verizon also owns the computer network that routes the caller’s information to a computer in Virginia, before sending it back to the Middletown call center.
Truitt said he contacted Verizon and "calmly encouraged them to see the error of their ways" after being told the problem was not a Verizon problem.
It was not known how many failed calls were made to the center during the system crash, which lasted until 7:20 p.m., for a total downtime of about two hours and 40 minutes.
The call center normally receives about 1,000 calls per day during the week, 42 percent of which are made from cell phones, according to Truitt. The center can receive upwards of 1,200 calls per day on the weekend. Exactly what went wrong was not immediately determined.
"They fixed it; that’s all that counts," Truitt said.
Verizon spokesman Sheldon Jones said the problem was not a Verizon problem, but one with the router at the call center.
"The problem originated, we think, at the public safety answering point," Jones said, referring to the 911 dispatch center in Middletown.
Truitt said the problem was a Verizon problem and only got fixed after he and several county officials contacted the company. He also said it was fortunate the system failure occurred when it did.
"I’m glad it happened at this time, when we could jump on top of it," he said, adding that correcting the problem on a busy weekend night might have taken longer.
Truitt also credited the unidentified motorist with alerting the center to the problem in the first place. Otherwise, emergencies could have gone unanswered.
As it stood Thursday night, Truitt said he only had personal knowledge of one incident delayed by the system failure. An Upper Darby resident called 911 from a wire line phone and said their neighbor needed medical attention. The neighbor had apparently tried to call from a cell phone but could not get through. Truitt said he had no further information about the incident.
©DelcoTimes 2006
For more than two hours Thursday, 911 calls made from cell phones were not reaching an operator. Delaware County Emergency Services Director Edwin Truitt said the problem was discovered at 4:40 p.m. when a motorist tried to make a 911 call from a cell phone while driving in Chester.
The caller, who was not identified, flagged down a passing city policeman and told the officer about the problem. The nature of the emergency was not immediately disclosed.
The officer tried to make the call from his own cell phone, and that didn’t work either, according to Truitt.
"The cop then radioed us and told us about the problem," Truitt said.
To troubleshoot the system, Truitt had employees at the dispatch center in Middletown call family members and ask them to place 911 calls to the center from their cell phones. Truitt said all wireless carriers were used. None of the calls went through.
"Everybody in our system was experiencing the same problem," he said. "The common link was the Verizon network."
Truitt said Verizon owns the cell tower in King of Prussia that receives 911 calls. Verizon also owns the computer network that routes the caller’s information to a computer in Virginia, before sending it back to the Middletown call center.
Truitt said he contacted Verizon and "calmly encouraged them to see the error of their ways" after being told the problem was not a Verizon problem.
It was not known how many failed calls were made to the center during the system crash, which lasted until 7:20 p.m., for a total downtime of about two hours and 40 minutes.
The call center normally receives about 1,000 calls per day during the week, 42 percent of which are made from cell phones, according to Truitt. The center can receive upwards of 1,200 calls per day on the weekend. Exactly what went wrong was not immediately determined.
"They fixed it; that’s all that counts," Truitt said.
Verizon spokesman Sheldon Jones said the problem was not a Verizon problem, but one with the router at the call center.
"The problem originated, we think, at the public safety answering point," Jones said, referring to the 911 dispatch center in Middletown.
Truitt said the problem was a Verizon problem and only got fixed after he and several county officials contacted the company. He also said it was fortunate the system failure occurred when it did.
"I’m glad it happened at this time, when we could jump on top of it," he said, adding that correcting the problem on a busy weekend night might have taken longer.
Truitt also credited the unidentified motorist with alerting the center to the problem in the first place. Otherwise, emergencies could have gone unanswered.
As it stood Thursday night, Truitt said he only had personal knowledge of one incident delayed by the system failure. An Upper Darby resident called 911 from a wire line phone and said their neighbor needed medical attention. The neighbor had apparently tried to call from a cell phone but could not get through. Truitt said he had no further information about the incident.
©DelcoTimes 2006