' Is it right to call 999 over mattress in the road?' blog discussion

Cherry662164

Completely right - that was an immediate danger.

Laughed at the postcode thing. It just demonstrates how jobsworth some of our employees (as we pay taxes) can be!

A couple of years ago, I was woken up by a car driving the wrong way down the road at the side of my house, with an exhaust dragging underneath it. it then turned into the alleway behind my house & stopped. I went out to investigate, & saw a couple of lads running away, so immediately called 999. It took me 10 minutes to talk the dispatcher into believing that this may be a stolen vehicle & sending a car to investigate, so much to their surprise, but no-one else's, the thieves got away.

amandada

As a police 999 operator and dispatcher, I'd say you made the right call

And the operator who took your call needs a royal kick up the backside! We work with mapping systems which allow us to work out (without GPS etc) a pretty good idea of what your location is. We use such things as asking how long (timewise) you've been on the road and where from, can you see any road signs etc.

We don't work by postcodes-OK it may help using GPS but you often can't beat an old fashioned map!

*rant over*

geordie_lass_2

I would say you were right to call 999. Someone's life could be in danger if they
A. swerved to avoid it
B. were distracted by it.
C. collided with it.
D. stopped and tried to move it themselves.

If there was still any doubt then dial 999 and let the control room decide whether it's an emergency.
Some people have been known to dial 999 to ask for directions, now that's what I call an abuse of the system...

laura1976

999 absolutely, if I was poodling along with my kids in the car I don't want a lorry swerving into us to avoid the obstacle. On behalf of all those people who don't even know you hwlped them out today THANK YOU:beer:

SnowMan

I would have slept on it before making the call

Evilm

king100 wrote: »

Actually what is my local police station there?

I happen to know mine for Hampshire and put that list there for others to be able to save the number for theirs. If in doubt of what area I was in I would use 101 (and haven't had it fail yet - they just direct the note to the local area).

jd87

This issue of location finding when dialling 999 is something which is often misunderstood. Martin, it sounds like you were correctly put through to the Metropolitan Police, so you were speaking to someone relatively local who should have known where you were describing. However people need to be aware that you can't always assume a 999 controller will know your local area.

When you dial 999 from a mobile phone the first person you speak to will be someone in either Blackburn (Lancashire) or Inverness (Scotland). This person can normally use the cellular network to work out your location, so that when you ask for "Fire", "Police" or "Ambulance" they will automatically be able to put you through to the service that covers your area. The system doesn't always work though, there might be a technical problem, or you may be near the border of two different areas. In this situation they will need you to be able to tell them with some accuracy where you are, using terms that a non-local will understand. It's no use telling someone in Scotland "I'm on the Westway, you know the one".

Like I say, this doesn't sound like the problem Martin had, but it just illustrates that these things don't always work the way people think they do.

Denando

Slightly off topic, but ...

Years ago (pre mobile days) I broke down on the elevated section of the A40/Westway. I called the RAC from the phone on the hard shoulder - which I had stopped right next to - giving him the phone's reference number, and 3 hours later, I called again to see where they were. The operator said the van had come along and couldn't find me!! If you know the road, you'll understand my surprise. I also drove a (horrible) bright yellow car at the time You could see me for miles!

FiFi_Mad_Mum

I once called 999 to let them know that someone was walking up the middle of Great Western Road (Glasgow to Balloch) at a dark part of the road and I got asked why I was calling 999! I can only presume they thought I meant the grass verge but what I actually meant was the lunatic was following the white line that divides the lanes and walking toward the traffic, I ended up apologising that I was on my mobile! I have since put all the local stations into my phone but the last time I called my local number, I got put through to a central call centre.

FiFi

davetrousers

There was a section of an aluminium ladder on the A27 a few years ago between lanes 3 and 4 that I passed whilst on my motorbike. I phoned the Hampshire non-emergency number 0845 0454545.