# Weird "call" off duty



## firecoins (Mar 4, 2007)

Let me set this up.  

I just got back home from the city 10 minutes ago.  In order for me to drive home from Manhattan to Nyack, NY I cross the GW Bridge from Manhattan into NJ.  I take the Palisades Parkway which follows the Hudson River until it hits Rockland County, NY where Nyack is located.  

Just as you get off the GW onto the Palisades there is a Sunaco gas station on the Palisades. I pull in to use the men's room, buy a soda etc. etc. I walk back to my car.  There is a handicap spot with van in it.  A man in an electric wheel chair is lowering himself down in a wheel chair lift. He seems to be in some distress. A woman is helping him.  The woman turns around and just asks me for help.  

It seems this guy got his foot stuck in the rail of the lift.  The woman had no association to the guy in the wheel chair.  The guy is beginning to panick. I begin to pull.  His foot won't budge. This goes on for 2 minutes.  I go to my car and can only find an old belt. I take it use it to gain some leverage.  After 2 minutes, nothing.  The guy is panicking some more.  

I decide I can't do this on my own. I call 911. I getr a female voice but my phone is breaking up. This despite 4 bars of service. I am confused.

I call a second time. Its the same dispatcher. Its NYC 911. You can see the Bronx and Northern Manhattan from the gas station. I tell them the Palisades Parkway, they have no idea where that is.  They ask if it was in the Bronx or Manhattan. I tell them Jersey.  I happen to know the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police have jurisdiction.  I am on the road alot.  Both speeding tickets I got were on this road. I know.  So I ask for them by name. The 911 dispatchers can't get through. They try 3 times.  They just give me the phone number which I repeat outloud for the other bystander to help me remember.  I hang up and we cant remember the #.   

I decide to call in the heavy calvary.  I call 411.  I don't have the address of the police but the operator gets the Palisades Park Police.  Close enough. They have juridiction over a bunch of parks that surround the Palisades Interstate Parkway.   The park police transfer me to the interstate police. Good enough.  I tell the 911 dispatcher I just need the help of an officer.  To help me get this guy's foot clear. They send someone. I hang up.  The guy tells me he need an ambulance. Great!. I don't have their number to call back!

I figure once the cop is here, he can call the ambulance since this patient is stable. The patient is just panicked. The pd carry O2 anyway.  I ask a third person to help me pull. After 3 minutes, I call 911 again. I get the same dispatcher from the Bronx for the 3rd time.  She puts me on hold to try and transfer me.  The guy begins to panick.  I give the phone to woman bystander and begin to pull the foot yet again. The woman doesn't realize we are on hold and hangs up.  Great!

I walk into the convienant mart to see if they have WD 40.  There 1 employee ringing up 20 or so customers. I walk back outside. It couldn't have been more than 10 seconds. This third guy who I recruited to help had moved the lift with the electronics freeing the patients foot. I had no idea how to work such a device. Just as he did this, 2 cop cars come rushing lights and sirens into the lot. 1 second too late.  

The cops came in and exposed the foot. The foot was bruised.  So an ambulance was called. The police didn't need me so I left at their request. The patient was alot more relaxed now.  I left.  As I was leaving, I saw a rig on the way in the Southbound lanes heading to a neaby U Turn that leads to the gas station.


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## DT4EMS (Mar 4, 2007)

I think it was pretty cool to read that people still stop to help. Great job!
It seems communications may still be a problem around there eh?


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## firecoins (Mar 4, 2007)

DT4EMS said:


> I think it was pretty cool to read that people still stop to help. Great job!
> It seems communications may still be a problem around there eh?



Lets see here.  This gas station is on the Palisades Parkway.  The Parkway is in the the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police's juridiction.  It would have been nice to get them directly. 

The station is physically in Alpine, NJ which has their own police department. It would have been okay to get them.  

We are less than .5 mile from Ft. Lee, NJ.  Due to the construction of the road.  They have an easier time getting to the gas station than the 2 above departments.  

I just got off the George Washing Bridge which is about .2ths of a mile South. The Port Authority Police has authority over the bridge and the on ramp to the PIP. They could have walked to the gas station. 

None of those departments got my 911 call.  NYPD did. They are  a .5 mile to the East.

If I didn't know who I needed, I would have been screwed.


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## Chimpie (Mar 4, 2007)

firecoins said:


> If I didn't know who I needed, I would have been screwed.


Even if the cashier had 20 customers, I would have walked up, said give me a phone and called pd/fd/ems, whomever, via landline.  That way, through e-911, you would have got through to the right department the first time.  In addition to that (and I assume that you did this) identifing yourself as an EMT probably got you the response (lights and sirens) that you received.


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## Nycxice13 (Mar 4, 2007)

No pay phones around? 911 is free on those, and it would have gotten you to the local's


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## Airwaygoddess (Mar 4, 2007)

It's nice to know that folks will help, dispatch sounds likea nightmare!:blink:


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## Stevo (Mar 5, 2007)

out there with nothing but your wits is always an interesting trip*Firecoins*

~S~


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## firecoins (Mar 5, 2007)

there pay phones around.  I should used a landline! Certainly would helped.


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## firecoins (Mar 5, 2007)

I learned several things on this thing.  

1. Don't get tunnel vision.  He wasn't complining of pain when I asked. I assumed he just needed to get his foot out.  In reality he needed an ambulance even just to stand by, albeit he was clearly stable. He did in fact need his foot attended to. It ended up having some bad contusions. 


2. I never really asked how he got stuck in it.  I just pulled because that is what he wanted me to do.  This other guy who I recruited had him out in 30 seconds when he got a hold of the machine.  

He was handicapped in some capacity. He needed an electric scooter type device for some reason.   I never asked why about that either.  Looks like I need some extra practise. 

3. I need to hit the gym.

At least I learned this stuff in a real but non-life threatening situation.


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## Jon (Mar 6, 2007)

Wow... good story.

I have the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Dispatch number in my cell phone, and will call it if I am on the pike and observe any sort of "road hazard" (Like a spare tire on an exit ramp that is causing folks to swerve around it). Likewise, if I needed fire/ems and was on the pike, I'd probably call the Turnpike's number, rather than 911, because the Turnpike knows where I am based on the mile marker, and knows which county and station is due for that direction at that mile-marker.

As for Cell phones, I know the back-door (Pre-911) numbers for County Fire and Police, and will call them from my cell phone if I am near the county limits, but still in the county. The police number is also the "non-emergency" number for police in the county.

If you travel the road often enough, and are the type of person who will stop for something like this...it might pay to spend a few minutes with Google and fill a couple of cell-phone memories with phone numbers you hope you will never need to call.


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## firecoins (Mar 6, 2007)

I have called NYC 911 in the past.  Help has always arrived quickly.  They have done their job and done it well.  But they never seem to know NYC very well.  

For instance, I am in Manhattan.  27th street and 8th avenue.  My car is missing.  I think its stolen.  I call 911. I tell them 2th and 8th avenue.  They ask East Side or West Side.  :glare: Anything avenue numbered higher than 5th avenue is the West Side. Anything lower, the East Side.  Manhattan Dispatchers should know that.  I understand dispatcher in the other boroughs not knowing that but Manhattan???   It was just one of those stupid things. My car had been towed because I was 10 inches away from a hydrant instead 12 inches or something stupid.


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