@RideTheWomble 93724 wrote:
I understand this was a huge deal to you, and that you were upset. 911 is for emergencies where a serious crime is in progress, or there is an immediate threat to human life, though. In other words, someone is having a heart attack, or an armed robber is threatening a cashier, or there’s been an accident, and someone needs an ambulance NOW. By calling 911 with an issue that’s not as serious as those types of things, you may be contributing to those 5 minute holds.
I keep the Arlington Police non-emergency number in my phone for stuff like this – (703) 558-2222. This happened pretty close to the jurisdictional line, but they’d still have been able to help. Most importantly, you would have given the dispatcher the discretion to prioritize the call. I suggest putting the police non-emergency numbers for the jurisdictions where you ride in your contacts. If you have a fender-bender, see some new graffiti, notice a stranded vehicle that needs help, have a kitten up a tree, or any number of scenarios where someone isn’t bleeding out, you’ll have the number.
Having said all that, the recumbulator driver does sound like a cowardly douche, and it’s disheartening that he brought needless conflict to the trail and messed up your bike.
Yes, understood, it is probably guys like me who are clogging up the 911 line and I realized as I was doing it that calling them was not a very cool thing to do. That said, I didn’t have the arlington number, the guy was standing right in front of me and telling me he was going to commit a hit and run, and I figured if the cops actually responded immediately they might nab him since he was so obvious and obviously heading into town on the trail. Plus I had just told the guy I was going to call the cops on him… But seriously, the dispatcher could have just said “hey buddy, call the arlington cops – here’s their number, and it would have taken about 10 seconds. I truly find it frightening to learn that if I call 911 in Arlington for a real emergency I will have to wait for 5 minutes before a human actually picks up the phone. Couldn’t they at least pick up and do a quick triage? (e.g., “hello, 911, is this a life-threatening emergency? Are you in physical danger? No – OK, we have to put you on hold for a few minutes).
BTW, I waited about 20 minutes for the cops, who never showed. Then I pedaled home, another 20 minutes, and maybe 10 minutes later got a call from an officer (I had given the dispatcher my number). He told me he wouldn’t have been able to do anything even if he had been on the scene – since it was “not like there were cars involved,” that this was “a risk of riding on the bike path,” and that if they responded to every incident on the path they would be “inundated.” At least the guy was honest, but still I was under the impression that since I was crossing a city street at the time of impact, that traffic rules applied to us both. I’d bet this same cop would give me a ticket for going through that stop sign on my bike without stopping if he happened to be in the mood (I’ve heard of cops doing this on the W&OD but haven’t witnessed it).
Anyway, thanks for the Arlington number. I’ll put it in my phone right now.
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