Woman drowns after 911 operator scolds her and tells her to shut up

[adidas]

Warning - distressing content  

https://www.9news.com.au/world/arkansas-woman-drowns-in-a-flood-after-911-dispatcher-scolds-her-us-news/f49af815-5c33-40e1-9338-90a046f3a1bd

Debra Stevens said she didn't see the water on the road. She came up on it suddenly. The water was getting as high as her chest, she said. She could see people in the distance looking at her. They're probably laughing, she said.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry," Stevens cried.

Stevens needed to vomit, she said at one point.

"Well, you're in water, you can throw up," the dispatcher said. "It's not going to matter."

Crying uncontrollably, Stevens asked the woman on the line to pray with her.

"You go ahead and start off the prayer," the 911 operator said.

"Please help and get me out of this water, dear Father," Stevens said.

Again, she apologized. She didn't mean to rude. But she was so afraid.

"This will teach you next time don't drive in the water," the dispatcher told her.

Stevens insisted she didn't see the flood waters. She'd worked her paper route for 21 years and never experienced anything like this.

"I don't know how you didn't see it. You had to go right over it. The water just didn't appear."

'You're going to have to shut up,' dispatcher says.

[Destiny]

I saw this story this morning. I'm horrified.

[GreyhoundFan]

I used to be a police dispatcher, so I know the stress of the job. That dispatcher was horrible. Yes, sometimes you have to be firm with people, especially when they are hysterical, to get them to focus, but that woman was nasty to the caller. CNN indicated that morning was the dispatcher's final shift. I hope she doesn't get hired by another public safety organization.

[adidas]

I truly understand that dispatchers need to be firm - but this was just so cruel.

It borders on criminal, IMO. The poor woman might still be alive if the dispatcher realised her life was in danger and had acted accordingly  

[Ozlsn]

There was a similar case in Queensland in the Lockyer Valley flash flooding in 2011. Contemporary article linked.

A mother and son died after the vehicle they were in was trapped in floodwaters which rose around them while they were stopped at a traffic light in Toowoomba. The cop at the end of the emergency line (not his regular job admittedly, the lines were overwhelmed) basically berated her for driving into floodwaters (she didn't) and hung up on her. One of her sons in the car was able to be rescued by bystanders but the car was swept away before she and her older son were able to be rescued. It still makes me angry.

[adidas]

2 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

There was a similar case in Queensland in the Lockyer Valley flash flooding in 2011. Contemporary article linked.

A mother and son died after the vehicle they were in was trapped in floodwaters which rose around them while they were stopped at a traffic light in Toowoomba. The cop at the end of the emergency line (not his regular job admittedly, the lines were overwhelmed) basically berated her for driving into floodwaters (she didn't) and hung up on her. One of her sons in the car was able to be rescued by bystanders but the car was swept away before she and her older son were able to be rescued. It still makes me angry.

I didn’t know about this. My SIL was in Toowoomba on that day - she said she walked into a shop and it was a regular rainy day. She walked out again soon after and it was chaos and mayhem  it happened so incredibly quickly. 

[Ozlsn]

1 minute ago, adidas said:

I didn’t know about this. My SIL was in Toowoomba on that day - she said she walked into a shop and it was a regular rainy day. She walked out again soon after and it was chaos and mayhem  it happened so incredibly quickly. 

Yeah it did. There were inadequate warnings down the Lockyer Valley about probable flooding, but the flooding in Toowoomba was unexpected and extremely fast rising. I get that emergency services get frustrated with people driving into flood waters, but even if this woman had done that telling her to call a tow truck and hanging up on her when she was in major distress and had already said her phone battery was low was just an incredibly poor response. I don't know if they could have gotten to her in time, if she and her older son could have been rescued. They were damn lucky to get one kid out. That phone call though just made it so much worse for the family.

It's certainly made me a lot more paranoid about driving in wet weather - flash flooding is a thing pretty much everywhere and being aware of where the low points are is a good thing.