By John Annese
Island Advance
Copyright 2007 Advance Publications, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
NEW YORK CITY — Chest pains.
Crimes in progress.
Serious accidents.
New Yorkers were on their own for nearly three hours yesterday afternoon - it probably seemed much longer - as a computer glitch took down the communications system that operates 911.
Almost miraculously, there were no reported deaths or irregularities due to the communications breakdown. Staten Island’s hospitals said it was business as usual.
The system, which handles all police, fire and medical emergency calls, went down around 2:40 p.m., leaving desperate callers listening to a long, high-pitched beep or a disconnect message.
The Advance had received calls from Islanders in need who were unable to get through.
Police officials couldn’t say how many calls were affected, but judging by the daily average, the number would have been about 3,750.
The system was restored and appeared to be up and running by 5:25 p.m., said a police spokeswoman.
Although some calls were getting through, the police attributed the problem to a “computer glitch.”
DISILLUSIONED
But 911 not operating properly is more than a so-called “glitch” to Staten Islanders. “It just rang, and then it went to an error message,” said one Nugent Avenue resident, who called 911 at 4:16 p.m. after his 71-year-old neighbor fell down by her swimming pool and couldn’t get up.
The neighbor, who identified himself only as Bill, said he and the woman’s son were able to help her back up, and she wasn’t injured, but the experience left him disillusioned about the city’s communications system.
“At this point, should we be having these problems? I don’t think so,” he said. “We’re in the stone age.”
Yesterday wasn’t the first time the 911 system - which handles about 11 million calls a year - has gone down. In March 2004, a software glitch triggered sporadic disruptions that lasted for nearly two hours. And the system suffered a number of outages in 1999.
Yesterday’s outage comes less than a month after the city announced a $1.5 billion upgrade to the 911 system expected to be in place by 2009.
The way the system currently works, police operators transfer fire and medical emergency calls to FDNY and EMS phone dispatchers, meaning 911 callers often have to repeat details of their emergencies before getting help.
Under the new plan, police operators will field all calls, then communicate by computer with FDNY and EMS dispatchers.
Police will move into a new high-tech 911 call center at Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center by March 2008, and the center will be fully up and running, with fire and EMS personnel, by March 2009, according to city officials.
The city also plans to break ground on a backup call center in the Bronx by July 2009, but still must acquire the land and if necessary, start eminent domain proceedings against the land’s current owner.