PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Some 911 callers in the Phoenix area say they’re having trouble reaching a dispatcher.
About a week ago, there was a deadly crash along the Loop 202 near Priest Drive in Phoenix, involving a suspected drunk driver, going the wrong way. Some of the drivers who say they had to swerve out of the way had issues calling for help.
“I was driving in the HOV lane and had noticed a car that looked like it was coming head-on at us, so I asked my fiancé in the passenger seat, ‘Why does it look like someone’s coming for us?’ He looked up and he’s like, ‘Because there is. Get over,’” Miranda Neddeau, who was driving with her husband, said.
In that moment, vigilance saved their lives, but tragically, that was not the case for another driver. Police said 44-year-old Joseph Rollins is the drunk driver who caused the wrong-way crash on that freeway that killed 21-year-old Emma Huckleberry. He’s facing second-degree murder charges.
“I feel horrible because I looked over and said, ‘Someone is going to die tonight. Call 911 right now,’” Neddeau said, visibly upset.
And that’s what they did. Neddeau says she and her husband both tried to dial 911 multiple times. Neddeau described what she heard on the other end of the phone.
“It was an automated recording, something about English and Spanish, and then if it’s for nonemergency in the Phoenix area, call this number, and if it’s for an emergency outside of Phoenix, call this number,” she said.
Neddeau and her husband weren’t the only ones having this problem literally at the same time. There’s a post getting a lot of traction on social media where another driver says he, too, dodged the wrong-way driver and couldn’t get through to a dispatcher.
It’s something Neddeau says she’s never experienced when calling for help in Phoenix.
“I’ve never had a scenario where I could not get through and wondering if I was in a real-life situation or maybe I was being held hostage, I couldn’t get a hold of anybody. The person that got in this accident, it could’ve been prevented or stopped,” she said.
The deadly wrong-way crash happened near the Phoenix-Tempe border and Phoenix Police said its crews didn’t get a call for service for this crash.
The department also said if dispatchers are on other calls at the same time, the 911 callers could be transferred to a “hold” message, which is given in Spanish and English.
However, Phoenix Police said if 911 callers are close to the border, it will go to whichever agency is closer, which in this case was Tempe.
Tempe Police say its dispatch center doesn’t have an automated recording that includes the word “Phoenix”, and they got one call for this crash. Officials explained that the operator immediately answered and transferred the call to the Department of Public Safety within 21 seconds.
Phoenix Police added that what these callers experienced has nothing to do with the new AI non-emergency system that helps balance calls to 911. Tempe Police says it’s working with its dispatch center to figure out if anything happened on their end.
DPS told Arizona’s Family that once they get a call, they rush units out to the scene.
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