Father, Son Die After 911 Call for Help

The Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) says that a single 911 call from a man who said he and his 7 year-old son were trapped in the wreckage of their car off I-17 was not enough to generate an air search for the car. But critics say there were plenty of clues to the location and enough reasons to launch a helicopter, including Phase II 911 service that was turned on just one week before the crash. The incident demonstrates the critical nature of multi-agency operations and the importance of incident “ownership.” The DPS says Conrad Hernandez dialed 911 mid-day Friday to say he and his son were injured after the crash, and he gave a general location. A ground search failed to find the two, and later that same day the man’s wife reported the two missing to Chandler PD. It wasn’t until Sunday that a sheriff’s dispatcher linked the 911 call and the missing person case, sparking a DPS air search that located the car.

According to police reports, a sheriff’s dispatcher answered the original 911 call and took information, but did not keep the father on the line. When the sheriff’s dispatcher relayed the information to DPS, the DPS dispatcher mentioned receiving an earlier call about a car that left I-17. Both sheriff’s deputies and DPS officers searched both directions of the highway in both directions, but didn’t locate the red car, 200 feet down in a canyon.

Dispatchers had the victim’s telephone number, but did not trace the registered owner or go to his home, press stories point out.

The father’s 911 call was traced to an antenna tower in the desert, the sheriff says. However, press accounts note that the sheriff announced a Phase II upgrade just one week before the crash, allowing dispatchers to see the exact location of 911 callers. The sheriff hasn’t commented on that aspect of the incident.

On Sunday a female sheriff’s dispatcher fielded a call from Chandler PD asking for assistance with a missing person search for the father and son, reported by the wife. During the call the sheriff’s dispatcher realized the missing person case and the father’s 911 call were connected. Chandler PD then requested a DPS air search, but the local DPS helicopter was out of service and another chopper had to be flown in. In late afternoon an air crew spotted the victims’ red car.

Complicating the incident are reports the father was suicidal, and may have dialed 911 before the accident. DPS officials say it’s unlikely the two could have survived the fall into the canyon, or for the father to have dialed 911 after the crash. They are still investigating how the crash might have occurred.

Read more about the handling of the 911 call here., and listen to the 911 call and relay to DPS here.