Never thought it was possible. In fact, I’ve only seen it in the movies and televisions shows. Today, I was on hold with 911. No really, it’s true. You can forget about those urban legends, and “oh that’s just Hollywood trying to spice things up”; it really happend to me!
You’re probably wondering why I was calling 911 in the first place. Well, let me expound. While watching the Simpsons tonight in our living room, Bethany and I heard a noise and then a yell from a woman. When I ran to our balcony (we’re on the 3rd floor of the apartment building), I didn’t see anything except a woman walking towards the parking lot. Then I heard that woman say, “are you alright, is everyone alright?!!” That’s when I heard, “.. nooo… I’m not alright..” To which the woman walking turned around and yelled, “someone call 911…!” So at that point I grabbed my sandals and I was out the door.
When I reached the bottom of the stairwell I realized that a younger man in a little car had hit an older woman. His front windshield was broken at one point which must’ve been where her head hit it. The woman was laying on the ground holding her head, but the man who hit her was sort of in shock. Everyone was just standing there staring at her, and everyone kept saying “someone call 911”. So 3 of us we’re on our cell phones in the parking lot of our apartment complex dialing 911. And to our amazement, “.. now connecting you… [pause]… we’re sorry, all of our agents are currently busy…” One of the guys was like, “I thought this only happend in the movies, I’ve only heard stories of it happening, I didn’t know it was real!!” I couldn’t believe it either to tell you the truth, it was weird. So I ran back up 3 flights of stairs and grabbed our house phone which connected me right away with 911 emergency. After explaining to the woman on the phone what had happend the ambulance was there in less than 3 minutes. It was a crazy ordeal, and I still don’t know how the woman is. She was talking and communicating to us, but she had to leave in the ambulance. So sad..
So what’s the moral of the story? Write your local congressman and tell him that it should be mandatory for cell phone companies to directly connect you with the local 911 in your area. We should never have to hear an automated answering service in the event of an emergency, how lame is that?
4 replies on “On Hold With 911”
Oh man, guys. That’s crazy. Is the woman alright? Did Bethany get shaken up? It’s scary to know that cell phones don’t get the same priority as land lines . . . Well, keep safe sister and brother-in-law of mine.
hey shay!! i just wanted to say how excited i am that you and your wife ( i like saying that!! lol) are back on staff! you both are such a blessing and i love having you guys back in youth group! thank you both for your awesome examples and love for the Lord!
see ya at church!
There have been a couple times I’ve tried calling 911 on my cell phone and I have not once been able to get through. It’s scary. We tend to rely on our cell phones so much and in an event where we would absolutely have to rely on them, they would fail to help us. I don’t like that.
I miss you guys!
OTB to the rescue!… we should set up our own emergency plan for needy victims.