How many times have you dialed 911 in your life?

[DrPizza]

Can't recall. I've used the non-emergency number dozens of times. (i.e. low speed traffic accident with no apparent injuries, stolen bike, etc.)

 

[Jaxidian]

Probably 3-4 times, all but one due to car accidents I saw. One was because it was around 2-3am and some guy was just sitting on the side of the interstate - figured it would be less trouble for the authorities if I dialed 911 than if somebody hit that guy or something.

 

[Aries64]

I'm 42 and so far, never - for any reason medical or otherwise. As far as "otherwise" goes "I don't dial 911" if you catch my drift...

 

[Project86]

As the person who answers 911 (hundreds of times a day), I have a few comments.

When people get a busy signal: that's most likely due to a high visibility incident like a fire or accident on the freeway. Dozens of people call at the exact same time, and some don't get through. Very frustrating for everyone involved. Some cities (like mine) have an overflow system where you will always hear a ring, even if all my lines are in use. As soon as I have a free line it will ring and I'll talk to you. The other possibility is that you are on your cell phone and therefore routed to highway patrol. They have large call centers who take forever to answer, and when they do answer they just transfer you to the correct agency. In my city, cell phone calls go directly to the jurisdiction that the cell tower is in, so it works a lot better.

We answer 911 as well as the 7 digit non-emergency line. Its funny that some people overuse 911, like for a cat stuck in a tree.... and then some people are afraid of 911 so they call the non-emergency number for a felony in progress or life threatening problem.

Most of the stuff people have mentioned are very 911 appropriate.

 

[koomey]

Never. But I have dialed 311, which is for a non-emergency kind of emergency.

 

[slurmsmackenzie]

4

twice for pranks as a young kid. once at breakfast in a lil restaurant in jax beach and once when a tractor trailor jacknifed in my driveway and the driver was unconscious. i got to miss work that day cuz the trailor was blocking my driveway.

nasty s curve on a downgrade right in front of my house..... i think had the ditch not been there, he would've crashed right through the wall where my gf and i were sleeping at the time. front end was about 5 yards away from the bedroom and the whole thing was on its side with the windsheild knocked out. i grabbed the guy's wallet laying on the inside of the truck and thumbed through it for cash and possible medical information while i was on the phone with 911. then some loser from down the street was bragging about how he called 911 and saved the guy's life. not sure what's so great about dialing three numbers and giving out an address...

 

[Zorba]

Twice for a reason when I was around 12 and my brother was stoned/drunk and beating the sh!t out of me and my mom wasn't around.

I did twice by accident with a modem. It was set up to dial 9+1 in the settings (it was my mom's work laptop), but when I typed in the number I put in 1+areacode+number. So it ended up calling 911. After it didn't connect the first time, I tried again. Took the cop about 3 minutes to get to the house and just about knocked the door down. He was pretty cool about it, once I explained what had happened.

EDIT: I also call the non-emergency numbers all the time to report stuff, mostly DUIs. I am on the road A LOT so I see a lot of drunks. Also reported stuff like teens throwing rocks at cars, etc.

 

[Maluno]

0.

 

[killface]

Once - I was going through drug withdrawal and hadn't slept in about 4 days and I thought there were hundreds of black guys attacking my house.