Woman Drowns in Canal After 911 Call
At about 5:00 a.m. on Feb. 16 Karla Gutierrez was driving on the Florida Turnpike in West Miami-Date when her car veered off the road, plunged into a canal and sank. The exact timing of the events is unclear, but Gutierrez was able to dial 911 and reach a Miami-Dade County calltaker, and speak for some 3-1/2 minutes before her car submerged. She gave conflicting information about her location, and by the time a police officer noticed skid marks, and divers reached her vehicle some 50 minutes later, she was dead. The incident quite naturally sparked discussions and questions from the victim's family, dispatchers, dispatch training companies and the media. 8-10-2001
Gutierrez's fiancé was angry, and claimed the calltaker did not receive sufficient training--he said the unnamed dispatcher should have given Gutierrez instructions on how to escape from the vehicle rather than focusing on questions about her location. The incident resulted in press coverage which, in turn, generated comments from those in the dispatching profession, which eventually appeared in newspapers and on television. The "Dateline NBC" show profiled the incident on Feb. 27th, interviewing a Miami-Date fire captain, the victim's fiancé and Bill Kinch, an employee of Medical Priority Consultants, which markets medical and fire protocol and pre-arrival instruction cards. The incident also sparked the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) to issue a press release about the incident, pointing out that Phase I and II wireless E911 might have helped locate the woman quicker, and for emergency units to arrive faster.