A Little Rock (Ark.) police dispatcher has been placed on paid leave during an investigation into the handling of an auto accident that resulted in a woman’s death and the hospitalization of her 5 year-old son. The unnamed dispatcher answered a wireless 911 call transferred from a Pulaski County sheriff’s dispatcher, during which a woman reported her car had skidded into a pond and was sinking. The police department says the dispatcher promptly notified the metro EMS service of the incident so they would send an ambulance. However, the dispatcher failed to enter an incident into the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system for dispatch of the city’s police or fire department. That omission resulted in a 22-minute dispatch delay for the fire department’s water rescue team, which had the necessary training and gear to enter the water, officials say. Both the 39 year-old woman and her son were rescued from the car alive, but the woman died later at the hospital. The young boy remained in critical condition at the hospital. Read the police department’s press release after the break.
Here is the press releases issued by the Little Rock (Ark.) Police Department after the incident:
On Monday, January 14, 2013, the Little Rock Communications Center received a transferred cellular 911 call from Pulaski County 911 at 7:57 a.m. The call information indicated two people were trapped inside their vehicle that was in a pond on Cooper Orbit Road, just east of Capitol Hill Boulevard and Rushmore Avenue. The Little Rock 911 Operator notified Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (M.E.M.S.) of this call at 8:01 a.m.
At 8:17 a.m., M.E.M.S. called back to Little Rock Communications to verify that the Little Rock Fire Department was enroute to the scene, at which point it was determined that only M.E.M.S. was dispatched. For reasons undetermined at this time, the Little Rock Fire Department and the Little Rock Police Department had not been dispatched.
At 8:23 a.m., the call was dispatched to the Little Rock Fire Department, who sent a Water Rescue Unit. The Little Rock Police Department was also dispatched to the scene at 8:27 a.m. According to the records it was approximately twenty six minutes before the Little Rock Fire Department was dispatched and thirty minutes before the Little Rock Police Department was dispatched.
Once it was determined there was a delay in dispatching fire and police to this call an investigation into the circumstances was initiated. At this point, the 911 operator has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of this investigation.
Sgt. Cassandra Davis said the call originally went to a county 911 operator because it was reported by a cell phone call that was relayed by a tower in the county, under the sheriff’s jurisdiction. The accident happened in Little Rock city limits, in police jurisidiction, but near the western edge of the city. The delay in dispatch of emergency crews with ability to get in the water—which MEMS cannot do—may have been critical, though the fire crew still had 11 miles to cover to reach the scene from its station downtown.
Jingli Yei, 39, died in the wreck after her vehicle slid into the water in sub-freezing weather. She was able to place the distress call by cell phone from her car. According to media accounts, she and her 5-year-old son, Le Ying, were alive when removed from the car, but she died at a hospital. Her son was in critical condition today at Children’s Hospital.
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