911 cant help you, unless you call it.
Once again 911 failures are in the news recently;
But this time it wasn't 911 that failed . . .
Or the MLTS/PBX system . . .
Or the routing in the Network . . .
This time, allegedly, it was policy that may have caused the untimely death of Oakland California US Postal Service employee Samuel Macasieb after being seriously injured at the postal facility where he worked for 28 years running a mail sorting machine.
Apparently, Macashieb was found by fellow workers lying on the floor with in a semi-concious state with what appeared to be a head injury. NBC Bay Area KNTV Investigative Unit reporter Vicky Nguyen reported recently that, according to records, 911 wasn't called for nearly 53 minutes. The blame for the delay was an internal USPS policy applicable to all postal facilities that requires emergencies, and health issues requiring 911 to go through a manager at the facility, who will then summon the United States postal police, who will then initiate a call to 911 requesting the appropriate public safety services, who will then be dispatched to the scene.
While it was not clear immediately from the story whether 911 could be dialed from the system telephones, several employees, who remained anonymous, stated that they were constant reminded of the policy, and that all requests for 9-1-1 had to go through the US postal police.
The US postal police is an agency underneath the United States police force, that coexists with 30 other agencies ranging from Amtrak police, to the United States Secret Service, to the US Capitol police department. They are a federal police agency with full police powers, however questions are being raised as to their authority to dictate when 911 can be dialed, and by whom.
In their coverage of the story, the KNTV Investigative Unit interviewed Augustine Ruiz, a corporate communications manager for the USPS Bay-Valley District. Included in that District's coverage, is the Oakland facility. Ruiz, who was obviously uncomfortable in the interview, stated the 911 policy exists in order to summon emergency responders as fast as possible. But, after being pressed by the KNTV reporter, he noted that even though cellphone service can be spotty inside of the five-story concrete building, and that the assistance of the postal police would be needed to grant paramedics access to secure areas of the facility, he also admitted that the policy would be put under review to determine if it was still the best policy to have in place. Ruiz also admitted that if it were him that was injured, he would not want that policy in place.
While these points are often quoted by many entities answering their own 911 calls, the point that is conveniently omitted, is the fact that much of the time, those intercepting or answering those calls to 911 internally are typically not trained for emergency medical dispatch, as is commonly found with the 911 call taker.
As apparently the case here, nearly an hour may have transpired between the time Macashieb was apparently found, and 911 was summoned according to the telephone records logs. Once emergency services were dispatched, they arrived and were on scene within seven minutes. Would that have made a difference in the outcome? Would Samuel Macasieb be alive today if medical help reached him 40 minutes sooner? Unfortunately, these are painful questions that cannot be answered.
What can be stated, is that most likely due to United States Postal Service policy, the Macasieb will go through Christmas this year without Samuel, and his wife, children and grandchildren will suffer the consequences of these actions for their remaining days on this earth.
Just 11 1/2 months after Kari Hunt died in the Marshall Texas hotel room when her nine-year-old daughter was unable to summon help from 911 because she didn't know to dial nine for an access code, we lost a loving husband and father and grandfather in California because of a policy with no apparent reason behind it.
When people tell me "there is no need for 911 legislation", I have to ask myself, "if that's correct, then why do stories like this still show up in the news?"