Why didn't 911 work for me?

[alevasseur14]

My mom and dad and I were on our way to a wedding reception tonight when we were hit by a drunk driver (We're all OK, just going to be really sore tomorrow.

When we got out of the car and I tried calling 911, I got that annoying beep and "Your call cannot be completed as dialed". I have an iPhone and when I'm north at home, I have the little 'o' next to AT&T. My phone works when I try and call someone and the internet works, it's just slow as dirt.

I'm wondering why 911 didn't work. I've heard of VOIP problems before but I thought 911 should work no matter what network you're on. Isn't that the case?

Here's a mobileme link to some of the pictures I took after: http://gallery.me.com/alevasseur14#100042

 

[RESmonkey]

I'm glad no ones hurt. Perhaps there is a preceding number you must dial before dialing 911. I know on campus phones at my school, you must dial 9-911.

 

[Goosemaster]

that's horrible; glad to hear you are okay.

0 = gprs so I'm curious as to why it didn't work.

 

[Regs]

Glad you didn't become another statistic.

You don't have the thing set up to dial with a prefex everytime do you? Area code bs and what not? I know there is a one touch 911 app you can get for the iphone that could simplify your problem.

Either way, it should of worked. I can't imagine much user error involved by pressing 911. Almost sounds like a walking lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Regs

. Almost sounds like a walking lawsuit waiting to happen.

definitely suspicious

 

[CZroe]

You should have held the Sleep button and pressed the Home button to snap a screenshot of the screen during the failed call.
Anyone know if screen-grabs get geotagged?

 

[alevasseur14]

I think I'm going to try and get ahold of AT&T when I get home on Monday. We're lucky there were people that lived out there and heard the accident.

 

[jamesbond007]

Good God! How fast were you and the drunk going? I would think it should take some serious force to [/i]rip the tires from the rims of the car[/i], separating the entire mount at the same time. I'm glad you and your family are OK and I hope that drunk SOB goes behind bars; this kind of stuff seems to happen far too often.

Also, keep us posted on the 911 issue - that should be interesting.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Not to thread crap, but seriously. Fuck drunk drivers

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Not to thread crap, but seriously. Fuck drunk drivers

Can't disagree with this.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Not to thread crap, but seriously. Fuck drunk drivers

+ the other 2 alcohol threads right now.

 

[911paramedic]

You probably didn't use my correct area code...

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Not to thread crap, but seriously. Fuck drunk drivers

+ the other 2 alcohol threads right now.

While I loathe drunk drivers as much as the next guy, what does that have to do with the other alcohol threads? Logic fail. Enjoying alcohol != drunk driving.

As far as the OP, definitely sounds like it's an issue that needs to investigating. After looking at those pictures, I'm impressed that no one was seriously injured. Bad luck and good luck at the same time, I suppose. Good to hear that everyone will be ok after what is an absolutely awful situation.

 

[alevasseur14]

We just got back from the site - I updated the gallery with some more photos. The state patrol marked up our skid marks so you can see how far sideways we slid down the highway before hitting the ditch. We're really lucky there wasn't any more oncoming traffic otherwise we likely would have been hit from the other side as well. Also, another 100 yards down the road or so and we would have ended up in the drink. What an asshole.

 

[Red Squirrel]

They changed it, it's not 911 anymore, it's 0-118-999-881-999-119-7253. Service announcement here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WWgcUh_AeU



Glad everyone was ok, and hopefully you can get the 911 sorted out as it's always good to have... lol. Does the operator work at least? Worse case scenario you could dial 0 then just ask for emergency service, if ever it's needed.

 

[xanis]

I'm thinking that 911 not working is VERY BAD. You need to call up AT&T when you get a chance and let them know what's up.

 

[SSSnail]

I'm gonna attempt some bad humor here, as I usually do...

Maybe the number didn't work for you because you dialed from an iPhone, sort of a population control method.

badumtsk...

I'll be here all week, thank you and good night.

 

[alevasseur14]

I never thought about trying the operator - I wasn't exactly thinking too clearly. I was more concerned with making sure the 'rents were alright and wondering what that warm, wet sensation I was feeling all over my face and arm was about.

I'm calling AT&T tomorrow when I get off work. That was very not cool. Luckily he hit us in a section of the road that had people living on it so we were heard. Thanks for all the well wishes.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Glad to hear that you are OK :thumbsup:

Need MS paint drawing of what happened.

Which car is yours? The sedan?

Fuck drunk drivers!

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: SSSnail
I'm gonna attempt some bad humor here, as I usually do...

Maybe the number didn't work for you because you dialed from an iPhone, sort of a population control method.

badumtsk...

I'll be here all week, thank you and good night.

I was going to say something like this:

Press the apple icon 10x on the iphone, then press and hold the emergency assistance button down by the menu bar for 30 seconds (can't miss it, small micro dot), and lastly, flip the phone up in the air 10x to act like your cool and better than everyone else. The trick is to make sure you catch the phone every time or you'll have to start from step one again.

 

[alevasseur14]

Yeah, what's left of the Alero was our car. I was sitting in the back on the drivers side so I got the brunt of it. I picked glass out of places I didn't know glass could get into...

MS Paint on a Mac?!? Blasphemy! I'll see what I can cook up after Father's Day brunch though.

Edit: I remember sitting on the side of the road thining, "I PAID HOW MUCH FOR A PHONE THAT WON'T DIAL 911??? WTF!"

 

[Flammable]

was there service..?

 

[erub]

That's definitely an AT&T network problem. I worked for T-Mobile for a while, and we would have to manually provision 911 for each tower. If we did an internal network change, it was part of the testing to make sure that 911 worked on each and every tower after the change was finalized. Somebody screwed up in not validating that.

 

[alevasseur14]

Yeah, I had full GPRS service on my phone. It's right on the Canadian border also, so I may have picked up one of the Canadian cell towers. I'm not sure.

 

[techs]

"Why didn't 911 work for me?"

Is that you Osama?