By Mike Wereschagin
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — About 8 a.m. Sunday, shortly after the Volkswagen skidded across the road in front of his house, Robert Kuhn called 911.
Or, rather, he tried to.
“It would ring, there was a lot of static on the line, and then there was a busy signal,” said Kuhn, 53, of O’Hara.
At the other end of the line, about 40 workers were struggling through one of the busiest hours ever at Allegheny County’s 911 dispatch center. As hundreds of cars slid out of control on ice-slicked roads, drivers’ and neighbors’ calls for help swamped the Point Breeze dispatch center at the rate of about 17 calls per minute from 8 to 9 a.m.
Those were just the ones that got through. An undetermined number, like Kuhn, never got through.
“Last Sunday (Dec. 6), we had 2,900 calls. We beat that in three hours this Sunday,” said Bob Harvey, the county’s 911 communications manager. The three hours spanned 7 to 10 a.m.
During the busiest hour, from 8 to 9, 1,001 calls came into the center. The average for that hour is about 75 calls, Harvey said.
Extra help wasn’t available. The conditions that caused so many people to call — iced-over roads, streets clogged with wrecks and highways shut down by emergency responders — made it too dangerous to bring in reinforcements, Harvey said.
“We did not call anyone extra (because of) all the roads being shut down and everybody getting in accidents,” Harvey said. “We went, (for) safety’s sake, with what we had.”
The National Weather Service in Moon predicts rain changing to light snow this afternoon. Temperatures are expected to fall below freezing tonight, potentially creating icy road conditions if roads are wet, said meteorologist Brad Rehak.
“By Wednesday morning, we’ll be in the upper teens again,” Rehak said.
Sunday’s problems began about 7 a.m., when light rain fell onto roads that had cooled below freezing during the night. Within minutes, ice coated Western Pennsylvania roads, PennDOT said. During the next hour, the center dispatched 498 police cars, 114 fire crews and 142 emergency medical services vehicles. The week before, the numbers were 48, two and 10, respectively.
“That one hour is an amazing statistical difference,” Harvey said.
For Kuhn, it meant an anxious 20 minutes. The car blocked the roadway, and the driver was unable to get out because of the icy road, he said.
“As soon as I would get a busy signal, I would hang up and call again, hang up and call again,” Kuhn said. The car’s driver, who was calling 911 on her cell phone, was uninjured, but Kuhn said he’s left to wonder, “What if she was?”
Kuhn’s wife finally called a Verizon operator, who tried and failed to reach Allegheny County 911.
“After quite a few minutes, she ended up getting Washington County state police,” Kuhn said.
They couldn’t get through either.
Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski said the company dedicates 60 lines for 911 calls, and they were never filled. Harvey said the 911 center gives callers a busy signal only if every operator is on the phone at once.
From 6 to 10 a.m., the 40 operators fielded an average of more than 13 calls per minute.
“It is absolutely not a normal occurrence,” Harvey said.
The proliferation of cell phones dramatically increased calls, he said. “For an accident on the parkway, we might have gotten two or three calls” before cell phones were prevalent, Harvey said. “Now, the same accident might generate 30 or 40 calls.”
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