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Almost ran into a broken down car on the highway, two wheels still on the overtake lane. Night, crowded, raining to boot. After I got my heart out of my throat I gave them a ring. The operator probably saw my location, so the conversation went like:
Are you OK?
Yes, I was calling...
About a broken down car on highway XX?
Yes, almost ran into it.
You're the 20th person to call. Emergency services are on the way.
Fastest mike in the West.
911 dispatcher here, it's wild to me sometimes that sometimes that exactly thing happens, and other times something crazy goes on in a public place and we get exactly 1 call about it.
I had a lot of your sort of situation tonight, we had a lot of strong winds causing a lot of downed trees and power outages and such. At one point I answered probably 10 calls in a row for the same transformer sparking, then a call about something else, and then a few more calls about the same transformer.
It's kind of fun sometimes because it sort of makes us look really on the ball to already have help started. It also makes us kind of feel like dicks because we're kind of rushing people off the phone, but honestly after the first 2 or 3 calls there's usually not too much anyone has to add to it, and we're probably swamped with incoming calls that need to be answered.
I had one person call in downed wires tonight, got all the information I needed, phones were ringing off the hook, but they were getting really indignant because I "wasn't letting them speak."
And then there are times where there's maybe an overturned vehicle on fire on a busy highway, and we get one call, and we sit there waiting for police and fire to get out there feeling like we're being punk'd, because surely someone else must be seeing this, why hasn't anyone else called? But sure enough, things are exactly like it was described. The bystander effect is real sometimes.
First of all, hats off to you and your colleagues, it's a hell of a job and I'm really glad you're doing it, and doing it well.
I remember that night I wasn't even mad, just glad they were on the ball. As for the other effect, my thinking before dialling was "someone must have called this in already, but let's make sure anyway". Wouldn't take much to land on the other side of that decision, especially if you just see the aftermath of an incident.
Merry Christmas!