By EMS1 Staff
HOUSTON — Houston has changed its 911 policy but denies it’s in response to the death of a young girl.
City officials say that the change was being processed before the incident Oct. 21 when a mother backed her car over her 4-year-old daughter. She then called 911 and asked for an ambulance, but a fire truck came instead, according to Click2Houston.
“This change was actually in the works and there were discussions ongoing about making this change prior to the Kingwood situation,” city spokeswoman Janice Evans said. “It was based on feedback that the fire chief received from those who are out in the field.”
The new policy allows Houston Fire Department first responders to call and request that an ambulance be sent ahead of them, the news report said.
City policy at the time sent a fire truck to “low-priority calls” to decide whether an ambulance was actually needed. Firefighters had complained it slowed down response time, and dispatchers were only supposed to do that in non-critical cases.