I don’t use my phone while I’m driving. Except once. I was in an interstate and saw a large child’s play house break off a truck and land on the road, blocking a lane of traffic. I was driving past as it happened, and i was ahead of it, in smooth-flowing traffic. But i could see cars swerving behind me. I was freaking terrified, and called 911 to report an emergency.
They took my information and assured me they would send someone out ASAP. I am not a celebrity. I don’t recall if they even asked me my name. They asked a lot of questions about exactly where the obstruction in the road was, though.
I call in freeway obstructions regularly. Florida Highway Patrol has a mobile phone speed-dial code (*FHP) for a reason.
Often large hunks of plastic bumper / fender, and my personal favorite, a 12- or 15- foot extension ladder lying crossways across one whole lane and partly into the lanes on either side. Pre-dawn in an area where the speed of traffic is 80mph+.
Having been knocked off my motorcycle at 75mph by a similar bit of highway debris back in college, I take highway debris a bit more seriously than some other folks might.
I also don’t understand the hesitation to call 911 for something like this. 911 dispatchers are not overwhelmed most of the time and can quickly get rid of you if you really have crossed a line. I don’t even know if we have “non-emergency” police contact numbers where I live. For anything more serious than a cat in a tree, I’m calling 911.
Good work. I did the same with a large aluminum ladder dropped on the freeway up near San Jose. I wrote afterwards to Mr Roadshow (SJMN), who kindly printed my letter (edited slightly) to say such a thing is most definitely a 911 call. My sources in the SJPD said the same thing.
We have a non-emergency number. I’ve used it to ask if the neighbor’s construction noise was legal, for example. (Sadly, it was. A giant jack-hammer thing mounted on a truck smashing rocks from 7:30am until 4 pm every weekday for more than as month.) I’ve also used to non-emergency number to report that the power was out. The police department coordinates that in my town. These days, they even send texts saying “we already know the power is out in these locations, no need to call. But please let us know about any other power outages.”
I know of at least one major city that the only way to get an officer dispatched for anything is to call 911; call the local district/precinct & they’ll tell you to hang up & call 911 as they have no ability to dispatch officers. In my county, whether I call 911 or anyone of a number of town’s 10-digit phone #s the call ultimately goes to the exact same operator at the county to gather your info for dispatch. In a number of states parkways/expressways are handled by the state police, not the local PD; if you call the local PD they’ll need to transfer you to the SP dispatcher, which aren’t so readily findable.
Calling a local, 10-digit # requires you both knowing where you are & the correct number to dial (yes, they can usually transfer you if you don’t end up calling the correct place); depending upon where you live just 15 mins away from your home could be another town, county, or state. Do you know all of those phone numbers without pulling over & doing a web search? I don’t. Sometimes it’s just simpler to call 911 & state you have a non-emergency call for a ___ at ___. I actually apologized once when I called 911 for a road obstruction in the middle lane of the expressway because I didn’t have a phone # for state DOT; rather than be reprimanded she told me I did the right thing & they would take care of dispatching DOT vehicle to remove it
Agreed. As far as I know, 911 is simply the way you call for the police. It’s been a while, but the last time I called, the first thing they asked is if it was an emergency. I suppose if I’d answered no, they’d transfer me or put me on hold. No one is going to care unless you’ve called just to chitchat.
A car stalled on a busy freeway is an obvious emergency, in any case.
If I needed the police I’d dial 911. The woman who answers then either helps me (if there is a cop on duty and my call is emergent), or try’s to answer my question if there’s no emergency, or forwards my emergency call to the state police (if the cop on duty is in court, for instance).
I remember an accident here a few decades back. An immigrant woman (unfamiliar with the most basic logical rules of driving here) stopped her car on the freeway to show her visiting relatives the majestic view of the mountain. The first vehicle behind her just managed to swerve out of the way, but the small pickup behind that vehicle had no visual warning and slammed into the back of the stopped car. The truck doors got wedged shut, the truck caught on fire, and both occupants burnt to death screaming before anybody could get the doors open. The people in the first car weren’t badly hurt. The driver got a couple years in prison, if I recall correctly, but it was a long time ago.
Out here, if you have any question how serious something is, you’re SUPPOSED TO call 911 and let the dispatcher sort it out.
I’ve had this on a couple of occasions in Chicago suburbs. The last time was when a strange car was parked in our driveway in the middle of the night. We didn’t think it an emergency so we called the general # for the police, and they instructed us to call 911. Has stricken us as odd, but has been our consistent experience.
Actually it’s not. They prioritize all calls; just as easy to have one person/group do that as having two separate groups enter that info & it cuts down on personnel expense.
On the other hand, I was once with someone when we witnessed someone driving extremely erratically (probably drunk), veering completely into the oncoming lane and back and the like on a city street, and she called 911, and got berated by the 911 operator for calling for a non-emergency.
Your electrical service provider probably has a website (or even a smartphone app) where you can report outages, and even a map showing you what outages they’re currently aware of.
My electric service provider is my town, and their website sucks. They rely on the non-emergency police number for that kind of communication. They also use the texting system set up by the police to communicate status of major outages and repairs to the town.
(My town doesn’t run its own power plant, it buys power from the grid. But the town is responsible for all local power issues, like repairing wires downed by storms. They do a much better job than the big utilities, too. Our power is always completely restored much faster after big storms than nearby towns that rely directly on the utilities for repairs. I think it’s because they have more emergency capacity, since they are probably using the same workers who usually repave roads and stuff, which can be delayed by a week without anyone caring.)
Huh. I called 911 on vacation in Hawaii when i watched an obviously drunk driver on the road in front of us. The 911 operator sounded bored, but asked me the last location where I’d seen the car.
In Chicago (where I live) we can call 311 for non-emergency matters.
You should call 311 if the incident that you are reporting has occurred and the offender is gone from the scene. You should call 911 if the incident you are reporting is in progress and the on-site presence of a police officer is necessary to help resolve the matter (e.g., burglary in progress, incident involving injuries, quieting loud neighbors, etc.).SOURCE
