Saturday, March 13, 2010

Bloomberg, I Hope You Don't Need Help

A huge branch was blocking the westbound lanes of Pelham Parkway tonight. Visibility was limited and I worried some other driver might not see it in time so I called 911. The phone was answered with the usual stuff about holding on for emergencies and dialing 311 for non emergencies and I even got treated to the shrill ringings that were for deaf callers. After all this, the phone rang again and I got to hear the same announcements over and over. After being on hold for more than five minutes, I hung up. I tried to call 311 to report the tree but could not get through there either.

I get it. The weather was awful and the system was inundated with calls. My call might not have been an emergency but what if it had been? Suppose there was a fire? Bloomberg stated years ago that there was no need for fire call boxes because everyone had a cell phone. I guess he never imagined the city not being able to respond to a call. Calling for an ambulance would have been impossible.

There is no excuse for a system like 911 to fail. Since Bloomberg is in charge, he should be accountable. I bet he will have some lame brain excuse and has already picked out the person to blame.

1 comment:

Ms. Tsouris said...

This is like the time I witnessed a car accident in Bay Terrace with one driver injured with possible head injures. I called 911, got through, and 45 minutes later no police car or ambulance had appeared. The system has been broken for a long time.