** South African EMS officials investigating after medics responding to suicide call had
no equipment to treat victim
** So-called “Butt Dials†to 911 keeping dispatchers in US cities unnecessarily busy
SOUTH AFRICA NEWS
** EMS officials in Western Cape are investigating a September 14th incident in which a teenaged
hanging victim was denied proper EMS care because the appropriate ambulance equipment had
been stolen days before. That is the word from The Independent Online (Genevieve Serra/October 7)
which said Charne Roberts, 17, died despite the fact she was alive when she was cut
from the rope. According to the newspaper, Roberts’ mother said medics responded quickly to their
Tambo Village home, but were unable to perform any procedures. Subsequently, Charne died six
minutes after being removed from the noose. Although EMS brass said nothing would have saved
the girl’s life after the hanging, they said investigators are looking into why lost equipment was not
immediately replaced.
UNITED STATES NEWS
** A new report prepared for San Francisco EMS officials has found that a 28 per cent call volume
spike between 2011-14 may be due to so-called “butt dialsâ€. The BBC
(David Lee/October 5) said the accidental 911 calls apparently occur because of the phone’s
perch in the user’s back pocket. According to the newspaper, the phenomenon is a particular
aggravation for dispatchers. Once the call has been initiated, for example, operators use up an
average of 1 minute 14 seconds to determine its validity. FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly
acknowledged the growing problem butt dials are presenting. As per his estimates, some 84 million
911 calls per year are dialed from users’ pockets across the US. So far few solutions are being offered.
Google engineers, however, have been approached with an eye to studying the problem.
