45 minutes for Poodles to Respond

[makapaaa]

Jul 29, 2010

Police and ambulance slow to respond to accident

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I WAS part of the group of cyclists mentioned in Sunday's report ('Car hits group of cyclists; 5 hurt') about an accident at the Keppel Road junction leading to West Coast Highway. I was riding at the front of the pack.
What astonished us was that the ambulance took about 30 minutes to arrive, while the police took 45 minutes after our 995 and 999 calls.
When we asked the police officer why they took so long to arrive, his reply was that they had come from Thomson Road and the location of the accident was unclear.
But we had described the location in detail and even provided the number of the nearest lamp-post.
We called repeatedly when there was no sign of any police car. The officer did not call us to verify the location although the police call centre should have a caller identification system.
I hope my concerns over this incident will be addressed:

Why did the ambulance take 30 minutes to turn up? There was low traffic volume at 6.30am and this was an emergency.

The nearest police complex is in Cantonment Road, which is less than 10 minutes away. Why did the police send someone from Thomson Road instead?

Why couldn't the officer call to verify our location instead of saying the directions given were unclear?

Does it take 45 minutes to get from Thomson Road to Keppel Road at such an early hour of the morning? That is how long it would take if one was riding a bicycle.
Teo Kai Loon

 

[HongKanSeng]

Mata busy to catch opposition you see?

Goh Meng Seng selling news paper CSJ selling books!:p

 

[Devil Within]

Mata need to go makan lah. Eat some snakes and go pee lah. After doing all these unnecessary things then got time to do actual stuff mah.

 

[jw5]

2 simple questions for Mr Teo to answer:

1. Are you a member of the elite or a relative or friend of a member of the elite?

2. Did you vote opposition in the previous elections?

If his answer to both questions is "No", then he shouldn't ask any more questions or write in to the press to complain about anything anymore. Just accept it.

 

[palden]

Police also got zone la. You just sway that you got accident at the far end of their zone.

 

[allanlee]

Because they inform the operator the RTA happened on highway....... so she had to despatch the expressway patrol to the case...... unfortunately during that hour there was only one expressway patrol on the road and it was at Thomson road.

 

[Teo Kok Eng]

Maybe Police got lost?

 

[da dick]

dun anyhow complain la, fake-ah neh. if you were in india, on a highway, you will probably get robbed, then have to crawl all the way to hospital. in matland, you might get beaten for complaining or even raped if you're not brown enough.

 

[halsey02]

Mata busy to catch opposition you see?

Goh Meng Seng selling news paper CSJ selling books!:p

Please add, looking after the safety of reporters who stand in manhole during floods, & at 6.30am, sleeping in the car or some lovers haunt, 'catch monkey'...

 

[Ramseth]

6:30 a.m. commonsense. Police and ambulance crew responding to the call need to wake up, wash face, brush teeth and probably skip breakfast in order to attend to case within 30 to 45 minutes. 6:30 a.m. don't want to sleep and go gang cycling obstructing traffic, if I'm the police attending, I'd summon them all for illegal cycling.

 

[SneeringTree]

I don't have that experience at all. The last time I called the police was to report that Chee Soon Juan was selling his books at a disused BBQ pit at the end of East Coast Park, further off from Bedok jetty. Even though it was 3.17 am precisely, the police came within 4 minutes, at about 3.21 am and 36 seconds.

 

[zuoom]

personally encounter the case of "the lines are busy, please hold" when i dial 995 at around 4am in the morning couple of months back.

spoke with another group of 3 person on site. one of them did however managed to call thru (about a couple of minutes earlier).

the fire fighters took about 10 over minutes to arrive after their call. the ambulance came about a minute or two earlier than them. the police guys came bout another 5-10 minutes after.

was quite surprised that the 995 could be busy at 3-4am in the morning. just imagine if there was a big incident say during morning or evening rush hour. i dun know how the heck they are going to cope with the volume of phone traffic and help request.

when i mentioned it to the police officers that were around, they basically just shrug their shoulders. gave excuses for maybe manpower not enough, or they were attending to other calls etc.

 

[SneeringTree]

was quite surprised that the 995 could be busy at 3-4am in the morning. just imagine if there was a big incident say during morning or evening rush hour. i dun know how the heck they are going to cope with the volume of phone traffic and help request.

Not surprising at all, that is the time where most drunk people fight outside bars and create trouble. I know this because my good friend is in the police force. He says you'd be surprised how busy 3-4 am is for some police stations in the East and in the Central.

Others like AMK, Clementi Police station etc should be less busy since their areas have much fewer bars and night spots.

 

[zuoom]

Not surprising at all, that is the time where most drunk people fight outside bars and create trouble. I know this because my good friend is in the police force. He says you'd be surprised how busy 3-4 am is for some police stations in the East and in the Central.

Others like AMK, Clementi Police station etc should be less busy since their areas have much fewer bars and night spots.

i see. makes some sense for those pub n bar area/sectors. that's closing time, and when the guys probably wasted from all the boze n drinking.

mine is however an residential area. and the call is for fire fighting help. (would there be so many calls for fire in that morning?)

the issue for me is that if the individual (in need of help) is not able to get thru to the relevant authorities, then the relatively quick response time as in the actual guys can get to the scene would be useless.
they would not be able to deploy correctly, and timely if the control ain't working perfect, first time, everytime. and sometimes, many people in need of help dun have the much of time to spare (time critical).
*control would be the call center taking the calls.