Comments on: Fascinating Emergency Call Transcripts

By: Brittany

Brittany — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:20:00 +0000

My friend and I and her father were out once when we saw a man fall off a roof. My friend’s father immediately called 911 and very calmly asked for an ambulance, the operator wanted the address but we didn’t see one on the building so he gave the address across the road. The operator was IMPOSSIBLE. She insisted on getting the exact address, and as he explained about 4 times that there wasn’t a visible address, we could hear her shouting “Calm down, sir!!!!”, which she repeated more than once. It was hilarious and frustrating all at the same time (the ijured man turned out fine).

By: PartiallyDeflected

PartiallyDeflected — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:23:00 +0000

I’ve worked in a 9-1-1 center and it’s definitely a high-stress environment. A lot of the calls fall into the dealing-with-idiots category. Then there are also the calls like a fire at a day care center, or a police officer being fatally shot. On those days you could just walk in the door and feel a heaviness.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:17:00 +0000

I almost had to laugh at “I’ve cut it right off”, as I imagined it with a flat-affect English accent. :) Glad to hear his surgery was successful!

By: Cassie

Cassie — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:43:00 +0000

For someone who works in and around that field, these are fascinating. There is nothing more beautiful and sad than raw human emotion.

By: EJ

EJ — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:34:00 +0000

If you liked these transcripts, you’ll also like the book The Black Box: All-New Cockpit Voice Recorder Accounts Of In-flight Accidents by Malcolm Macpherson. He offers some context to transcripts of incidents that ended well…and some that just ended. Fascinating reading!

By: the creature

the creature — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:10:00 +0000

my favourite line from the amputation:

“Iâ€™ve cut it right off.”

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:10:00 +0000

I agree, Bill. All I could think of was The Meaning of Life: A cross between “The Machine that goes, ‘Ping!’” and the scene with the stork, and the baby just falling out of the woman’s dress.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:48:00 +0000

The first one “the Birth” truly sounds like a Monty Python skit.