Disturbed, Rude or Just Stressed out Driver?

[Tigger&Belle]

Last night I had neighborhood watch training and a 9-1-1 dispatcher was there explaining that process.

She told us something that had happened in the call center yesterday. There was a bad accident on the DC beltway...a fatal accident. Someone called 9-1-1 to complain about the traffic, saying that the accident crews needed to do a better job clearing accidents than they were doing, yada yada yada complaining about the traffic and the emergency crews. Then he went on to say that with the traffic being as bad as what it was with that accident that he hoped there was a fatality.

I don't know what kind of a person could make a comment like that. Calling 9-1-1 to complain about the traffic (not to report an accident) is beyond my imagination--not such a great idea to tie up the emergency phone lines--they are not called "complaint lines". But to make that comment--hoping there was a fatality--floored me. When I am in bad traffic from an accident, even if I'm frustrated, my thought is always, "there for the grace of God go I". I'd vote for him being a disturbed butthead, keeping with the DIS language guidelines.

Here's one of the links to the accident. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/maryland/driver-dies-in-beltway-acciden.html

 

[golfgal]

Unfortunately too many people just can't think beyond the ends of their own noses. It's all about them.

 

[Hannathy]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

 

[dodukes]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

this Granted this guy sounds like a loon job because I dont know anyone who would call to complain about traffic ot 911. Anyway so thats my read on the situation as well.

 

[cm8]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

 

[plutotek]

Having worked in a 9-1-1 Dispatch Center back when 911 was just coming online, I can completely believe it. We got all kinds of 'idiotic' nuisance calls, and his seems rather tame.

 

[LilyWDW]

Having worked in a 9-1-1 Dispatch Center back when 911 was just coming online, I can completely believe it. We got all kinds of 'idiotic' nuisance calls, and his seems rather tame.

I have never worked 9-1-1 but I grew up in a family of police officers and knew many of the people who worked at the department, including their 9-1-1 dispatchers. Some of the calls they got were ridicules, cruel, and disgusting. I couldn't believe what some people said to them or called for.

It doesn't matter at all what the person "meant" in the OP. There is no reason he should have called 9-1-1 for that reason. He was not reporting any sort of emergency and wasn't in trouble himself. Lucky for him they usually give you a warning before you are charged for using the 9-1-1 line for a non-emergency.

 

[design_mom]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

I agree with this.

I also agree with other posters that the guy should not have been calling 911 to complain about the traffic, or even to find out what the tie-up was. However, I think he had an unfortunate choice of words.

I'll tell a personal story:
Two years ago, we went to visit my parents for spring break. We had problem after problem getting home -- a train stopped across the road, a slow-down for no apparent reason, etc. Then sat at a dead stop on the highway for over 2 hours. None of the radio stations were reporting anything. It was very frustrating.

Finally, we saw a medical helicopter take off -- and later, when traffic moved again, we saw that there had been a horrendous accident. I started to say "well, I'm glad there was a reason we sat there so long..." but I stopped myself before it even got all the way out of my mouth because I realized how terrible it would sound. I *did not* mean that I was glad there was an accident, or glad that someone had been injured. I meant that I was glad our waiting had been for a worthwhile reason (to allow the paramedics to try to help someone.) But if I'd opened my mouth, I imagine it wouldn't have sounded that good to an outsider.

 

[C.Ann]

I swear - some people don't have the brains that God gave a peach pit..

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

This!! ^ Maybe not in the best of taste (but I do think people nowadays are a bit too politically correct and overly sensitive but that's a whole nother thread) and they should NOT have been tying up the 9-1-1 line just to complain but I myself have said things like this before. Like when a kid is absolutely fine but is just screaming and screaming and screaming for you to come when you're trying to take care of something and you know they're fine. . . I've said things like "For you to be screaming and yelling like that, your hair BETTER be on fire!!" Now, I don't really hope that they're hair is on fire but I could understand them screaming like that if it was.

 

[DawnCt1]

I agree with this.

I also agree with other posters that the guy should not have been calling 911 to complain about the traffic, or even to find out what the tie-up was. However, I think he had an unfortunate choice of words.

.

Unfortunately he is not alone. People are placing 911 calls when McD's runs out of Mcnuggets or their fries are cold.

 

[ols386]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

I would think this is what the guy meant, too.

Just a poor choice of words maybe.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

It's my read too.

Sounds better if you say it differently, and if you say it in front of loved ones who understand you're just stressed and don't mean that you hope someone has died.

Like when a kid is absolutely fine but is just screaming and screaming and screaming for you to come when you're trying to take care of something and you know they're fine. . . I've said things like "For you to be screaming and yelling like that, your hair BETTER be on fire!!" Now, I don't really hope that they're hair is on fire but I could understand them screaming like that if it was.

Nice example!

Unfortunately he is not alone. People are placing 911 calls when McD's runs out of Mcnuggets or their fries are cold.

Wasn't the one in bold righteous b/c she paid for X, got Y, and McD's wouldn't refund her money (aka they were stealing from her)? The soundbite is adorable and sounds so awful "she complained b/c they ran out" but actually *reading* the articles told a different story.




I can see wanting to call 911 just in case no one else had, just in case the emergency people didn't know there was some sort of problem up ahead...but if he didn't say anything like that and was just complaining about how long it was taking people already on the scene to clean up, then that's not cool.

 

[laurie31]

I had kind of the opposite experience recently.

I needed to get some things done at work, so I left early. I was only about 3 minutes away from my exit, when I encountered the dreaded 5 mph traffic (in a 70mph zone) which told me there was a wreck ahead.

I thought well, I've left early, so I'll still be okay. I felt badly for the people in the accident. I hoped there weren't serious injuries. I had a friend who went through that and was off work for months. She still has issues from her injuries. Even if there weren't serious injuries, what a pain it is to deal with the insurance company about the car repairs - is it total loss or can it be repaired, whose fault it was, all that. Ugh. So I counted my blessings that it wasn't me in the accident.

We sat longer. And longer. Soon, not only was I not early, I was not even on time. I couldn't believe I was going to be late for work, when I'd left so early, and was SO CLOSE to my exit, but I was still feeling sorry for the people in the accident.

Then I *finally* came upon the scene. It was three cars, where apparently car #2 rear-ended car #1 and then car #3 rear-ended car #2. There was no visible damage to any of the cars, and the drivers were out of their cars on their cell phones (maybe letting someone know they would be late, or talking to their insurance agents). Police were on the scene.

Now...I *did* still feel sorry for those people. Their day got interrupted in a lousy way and they may have car damage I couldn't see, and maybe they had minor injuries I couldn't see...but I was SO ANGRY at the police for not moving those cars off the interstate. If the drivers were well enough to stand in the middle of the road talking on their phones, they could have moved the cars off to the side. The first thing that went through my mind was, "I'm going to be LATE to work for THIS???"

It would never have occurred to me to call anyone to complain, not even the non-emergency police number, and certainly not 911! I didn't wish ill on those people, but dang. From the delay I'd experienced, I was expecting a major accident with injuries. I was NOT hoping for that, I was just assuming that only something like that would cause such a bad delay.

I do not understand why the police didn't move those cars - there are even signs along the interstate to move wrecked vehicles from the lanes of traffic if there are no injuries. Why didn't the police do it? Enough time had passed that paramedics would have been on the scene if there were injuries, and only police were there. They also weren't doing anything to direct traffic, just letting 4 lanes of interstate traffic muddle through the best we could. The wreck was in one of the center lanes, and no one could figure out which lane to get in to get around it, so there was a ridiculous amount of lane-changing going on as one lane and then another would move, and everyone tried to merge into the moving lane. It's amazing there wasn't another wreck.


The guy was 100% wrong to call 911, but I do understand his frustration. If all minor wrecks were cleared in a timely way, then when there is a major delay, everyone would know there was a fatality or serious injury and perhaps have some empathy or understanding.

 

[Scurvy]

I think he meant for all the tie ups and delay he "hoped" -as in there better have been or else there is no excuse for it to be taking so long -a fatality. Not that he wanted there to have been but only as a ranking. In other words he could understand the highway being closed for 2 hours if it was a serious ie fatality accident but not if it was a fender bender and just general incompetence by the highway dept.
That is my read on the situation.

That's what I thought, as well. It sounds to me like just a clumsy way of saying he hoped that they would only tie up traffic that way for an extremely serious accident, not that he hoped there was a serious accident. Obviously it was tactless and he shouldn't have called 911 about it, but I can definitely imagine myself phrasing something wrong and not realizing how bad it sounded if I was stressing out about being late somewhere.