This. I crashed my own car a few years back. I tried calling 911 several times, but for some reason my cell phone wouldn’t connect. After a few minutes somebody actually stopped to check on me (I was unhurt), and I was able to use their phone to call 911. If that person hadn’t stopped, it still would have been helpful for anyone driving by to call 911 on my behalf.
I’ve called 911 on countless other occasions to report road hazards - debris on the road (cargo or dead animals), vehicles disabled in driving lanes, crashes, and so on. Often I’m not the first caller (“police are already enroute”), but it’s better to have too many people call than to have nobody call.
Called once on some apartment neighbors. It was close to midnight, and they were outside having a nasty shouting match. I was genuinely concerned that it might become violent, and I told the 911 operator so. Police must have been nearby, because the responded very quickly.
If you see objects in the road that other drivers might swerve dangerously to avoid, call 911.
If you see a car disabled in the driving lanes (as opposed to the shoulder), call 911.
If you see a crash that doesn’t already have the police in attendance, call 911.
If you’re not going to stop at the scene, try to make a mental note of as much detail as you can while you drive by - make/model/color of car(s), directions, location, etc. The 911 operator will ask, and anything you can provide will be helpful.
Several times, in the course of a not terribly eventful life. Car accidents, somebody looking into mail boxes (we thought) to steal stuff in the neighborhood. Once when it was -30[sup]o[/sup]F and a dog had been left outside by a neighbor. And when we found my mother-in-law dead. That wasn’t an emergency; she’d been dead for a couple of days.
I have always heard you should err on the side of caution - if you are not sure if it is worthy of calling 911, call 911 and let them tell you otherwise. I am sure people abuse it, but not generally out of malice.
Yes, last year – walking to the metro station after work (Capitol Hill area of DC), there was a guy just lying down in the street. Eyes were open and breathing, but no reaction or movement. There were a handful of people standing around, wondering what to do, but somehow I was the only one who thought to pull out my phone and call 911. They arrived in just a few minutes. The paramedics appeared to believe it was a drug overdose.
Another time, on a busy DC metro train, a young man was moaning in pain. I understand the instinct to mind one’s own business, but this struck me as more serious than most metro weirdness, so I asked the guy if he needed a doctor. He moaned again and said “my leg”. There was one other guy paying attention, standing closer to the emergency phone than I was, so I suggested he use it to tell the driver there was a medical emergency. But almost everyone else was making sure to keep their attention elsewhere.
The common thread is that most people appear unsure of what to do when there’s someone in obvious medical trouble. I’m not sure why this is so hard for so many. It seems silly to think this, but maybe it’s my Navy training about dealing with emergencies – calling 911 (or otherwise alerting the authorities) is really, really easy.
Several times. The one that stays in my brain is while I was waiting at the bus stop a guy comes out of the gas station next door with a canister and starts pouring some liquid on the ground. Did I mention the fire department is two blocks away from where this happened?
By the time I hung up with 911, the fire chief’s car pulled up, followed by a fire engine. The bus came then, and I got on it.
My youngest son had a seizure in his sleep at 14. Convulsing and completely non-responsive, I thought he was dying. One of the scariest moments in my life.
Reading all these reminded me of the night I called for a car vs. pedestrian.
I was out grocery shopping and had recently got off a bus. The grocery store is on the opposite side of the street normally a block up but I had to get off a block early due to construction in the area creating detours. I had just crossed Glebe and was waiting for the walk signal to cross 4[sup]th[/sup] when a guy on the other side of 4[sup]th[/sup] broke into a run. Another detoured bus was coming from the opposite direction so I assumed he was running from the out-of-service bus stop to catch it. Guy had nearly made it across when he was tossed into the air by a car from my left.
The nearest fire station is less than a mile away so they got there pretty quick. I stuck around to be a witness and comforted the driver as best I could. Remarkably, the guy only sustained minor injuries and continually tried to wander off.
In some places, the only number to get any police response, including for a barking dog noise complaint is 911. If you call the station, they’ll tell you to hang up & call 911. Where I live, whether you call 911 or a 10-digit number, you’re getting the exact same person(s) on the phone; they’re all routed to the same PSAP.
Holy $#!t, I know that story to be true; well not Dobbs calling 911 but I have met people in the balloon world that were actually involved with it.
I’ve called several times over the years, including when I saw another driver veering all over the road (probable DUI?), when I heard what sounded like a child wailing inconsolably for several minutes in a nearby apartment building, and just this weekend, when I saw what appeared to be a homeless man walking dangerously through traffic.
I have, once. Not for myself, however. I was driving home via the interstate, having just gotten a new cell phone from Best Buy. It was winter and fairly late at night (maybe 9pm or so), and the interstate was slick. I was being as careful as I could.
At one point, I saw a pick up truck merging on ahead of me. All of a sudden they appeared to be moving straight from the side, shot across the road and crashed into the left barrier (the concrete that separates the North/South interstate). The truck hit so hard it flipped onto it’s side. Even though this wasn’t far ahead of me, I was JUST able to slow down and stop safely behind the truck (I vaguely recall saying, “OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT SHIT SHIT” as I did so).
Getting out I called 911, panicked and forgot the Interstate I was on. Yay for them being able to track my cell signal! I could only see the undercarriage of the truck, and was afraid to cross into the opposite lane to go around it. I was also freaking out because something was leaking badly from the truck and I’ve seen way too many Michael Bay movies. Luckily, another car stopped behind me and the guy went around the truck to see who was hurt. By the time I finished talking to 911 and also went around to look, they were kicking in the windshield.
There were 3 or so adults inside, and everyone was able to get out on their own. I’m sure there were some injuries involved, but nothing looked severe. The cops, firetruck and ambulance showed up quickly. I remember waiting around for awhile to see if I was needed, before asking a cop if I could leave. I gave him my contact info in case he needed anything from me, and they stopped traffic so I could go.
I was totally safe and no one died on scene or needed the jaws or life or anything, so it’s a good outcome for having to call 911. I remember my adrenaline absolutely racing though, and when I got home I called my dad (he’d been with me at Best Buy) and couldn’t tell him fast enough what had happened.
So, yeah, 911 was the first call I ever made with that cell phone
Although I voted “no” on whether or not I’ve dialed 9-1-1, I have contacted emergency services at least twice in my 50-year life. One thing that I don’t think has been adequately covered in this thread is “since when has 9-1-1 been available?”
In about 1990, by which time, this wikipedia article says the 9-1-1 adoption rate in the US was north of 50%, I had to call the police while house-sitting at my brother’s place in New Orleans. Indeed somebody was trying to break into the house, but they ran away when they realized the house was occupied. The cops showed up very quickly, screeching to a halt at the street in front. They told us to “be sure of our target,” as they had black policemen on the force. (As if 1. I had a gun and 2. I knew the burglars were black, neither of which were the case.)
Anyway, this was before mobile phones, and possibly before 9-1-1 was available. IIRC I just dialed the POLICE number clearly printed inside the first page of the phone book and got through immediately.
The second time I called the non-emergency number for a downed cable, possibly a power line, in my neighborhood. The firefighter guy who responded wasn’t that happy, seeing that the downed line was something like a TV antenna line, not capable of carrying power. However, there had been an active campaign of getting people to phone in such things, so I was being a good citizen.
Speaking of active campaigns, I recall that about the time that 9-1-1 was becoming commonplace (close to Y2K I think), there were a lot of public service messages informing people about 9-1-1 service and to please remember to use it. Although the service had been available in some select places since about 1970, it was finally fully implemented by the late 90’s.
Various times for various reasons. Probably the most tale-worthy was the time a worker from ADT was out to adjust one of our motion sensors. Everything seemed to be going along swimmingly, when he got down of his stepladder, sat down and quietly said something along the lines of “I believe I need you to call me an ambulance.” So I called 911. While I was on the line with them, he told me to tell them that his heart rate was … something I don’t recall right now, but was very high and something he clearly was very in tune with, because he had calculated it without the usual finger-on-the-wrist pulse-taking method normally used.
Shortly thereafter, I had an ambulance and a fire truck parked in front of my house, then just as shortly, an abandoned ADT van in my driveway. I called ADT and told them what happened, and all I know is the van was gone by the time I got home from work that night.
Twice, for car accidents - first was when a passing motorist stopped at my house and asked me to call 911 for an accident down the road (pre cell phone days). Second when a car slammed into a telephone pole right in front of my house. I remember the driver got out of the car just as the police arrived (they were very fast, must have been nearby), and they cuffed her and put her in the cruiser within a minute or so. So she must have been very drunk. Thank god she hit a pole and not another car.
Once.
There is a number for the police “flying squad”, to be used for immediate police response. Reserved for robberies-in-progress, man-with-a-gun-outside-my-window, that sort of thing.
The idea is that you get an instant response, hopefully fast enough to catch the perpetrators in the act.
So, one night back in 2006, about 3am…
I wake up, hear someone moving in the living room. Peek out my bedroom, and see two burglars with shotgun?rifle? standing there, and a third carrying off our tv set. More noises from the kitchen area.
I duck back, lock my door, call 10111. Flying squad. “Help, we’re being robbed. 3 armed robbers visible, i think there’s more. Come heeeeeeelp! <give address>.” “A unit will be dispatched immediately”
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4am. call again. same.
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5am. cellphone battery dead after holding to long on call.
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6am. still quiet… unlock door, peek out. Yep, the house has been emptied.
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4:30pm… first police car arrives. Looks around. Bitches at me for touching anything, now the fingerprint guys won’t get good impressions.
accompany them to the police station (car also broken in, not stolen but immobilizer wrecked). Make the police report for the incident.
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next day
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next, next day… 11am fingerprinters arrive.
11:08 fingerprinters leave. somehow, the new kettle and toaster i bought meanwhile to replace the stolen stuff, is now also missing. Thank goodness i haven’t replaced the tv yet!!
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3 months later: insurance refuses to pay. “there was no police report made of the robbery, sorry no cover unless you report it”
I expect that this poll will skew to the positive due to response bias (i.e., mostly people who have done so will bother to log their response)…
I have only called 911 once in my life, because I thought there might be an intruder in my house and did not have the phone number for my local police precinct handy.
In the middle of the night I heard what sounded like rustling and rummaging in my kitchen, even though my wife was next to me and our two small children were asleep.
Rather than confront what might be burglars, I called 911. They told me not to go downstairs but to wait for the police to arrive, who did so very quickly (within 2-3 minutes), and they came directly to the back door (where the kitchen was).
The door was swinging open, but nothing appeared to be missing. They didn’t see anyone in my home or fleeing it, though one of the two officers said he “might have heard” footsteps going off into the distance as they came around to the back.
One theory was that we had left the back door unlocked and a little ajar and an animal (raccoon or opossum) had barged in and fled. Except that nothing that might sound like rummaging (moving around stuff on the kitchen counter) would have been something an animal like that might easily do. Well, maybe a raccoon that jumped up?
In any case, we were sure to be sure to lock the back door from then on, and got an ADT alarm system as well.
Twice. Neither time was particularly exciting, but I’m glad I called.
I was sitting out on my front steps in the afternoon. Neighbor’s boyfriend comes up to her house; she comes out and they start arguing. Pretty soon it’s getting heated. I called 911 and a squad comes up a few minutes later. They separated the couple and calmed things down. Since there was no violence, they told the boyfriend to leave.
On my lunch hour I was walking near the Washington Monument when I saw a man lying on the sidewalk. I tried to wake him up but he was mostly unresponsive. I called 911 and an ambulance shows up a few minutes later. By then he was sort of awake. The paramedics took him away.
This reminded me: I was one of 3 young boys whose ill-advised playing with fire started a small brush fire in the woods nearby our houses. This would be the very first time I ever called for emergency services (though I’m pretty sure this predated 911 in the city I grew up in, so we probably called the operator and asked for the fire department).
Important lesson learned: dry pine straw will not smother a fire.
How do you know if the person(s) who broke in are still inside? I don’t want to find out the hard way that they’re still hanging around, and in my part of the world, the way to get the cops out to check is to call 911. The “local” number is for purely administrative calls: how to get a copy of a report, or apply for a job, or schedule a community outreach visit, etc. If you want boots on the ground now, you want the emergency dispatcher, and the local cop shop will forward your call to the 911 center.
I only called the emergency number once in my life, forty years ago. This was before 911 was rolled out in my small hometown, and the ambulance service, fire company, state police and county sheriff all had different numbers. Once a year somebody would come to the door and give out stickers with the emergency numbers that you could stick on your phone. Good thing too, because one day when I was about nine or ten I had to call for an ambulance. My grandmother lost consciousness from heart arrhythmia. While my mother went to help her, she yelled for me to call an ambulance. Grandma got a pacemaker and lived two or three more cantankerous years.
I was a late adopter of the cell phone. Late one night around 2005 I was almost struck by a driver going the wrong way on the interstate. I certainly would have called 911 if I’d had a phone. I ordered my first cell phone later that week.
