Thursday, May 22, 2014

Fire Officers Union Blames Emergency Dispatch System for Delayed Metro-North Response


There are claims the city’s emergency dispatch system delayed the response to last year’s deadly Metro-North derailment.


The fire officers’ union says it has a dispatch ticket showing eight units being sent to the wrong location at the time of the crash.


It lists the address of an apartment building overlooking the Spuyten-Duyvil crash site.


By the time the units responded to the correct location, the union says seven and a half minutes had passed.


Union officials say that’s an unacceptable response time to an accident that killed 4 people and injured 80.


“When you have the people making calls over to 911 and the fire department is actually receiving wrong information, responding to the wrong addresses, responding to the wrong boroughs, wrong apartments, you know, lives are at stake. Whether be a first responder, or anybody in the apartment building, seconds save lives,” said Lieutenant James McGowan of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association.


The union says the 911 “Unified Call Taking” system, which the city unveiled in 2009, has caused a lot of dispatch errors.


Earlier this week the de Blasio administration halted the decade-long upgrade of 911 call centers and ordered a full overview.





NEWS – NY1




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