Wired Telephone More Reliable Than Cell Phone for 9-1-1

A Yakima resident, David Jones, ended up having a full cardiac arrest by the time he got to the hospital after his daughter had unsuccessfully tried to call 9-1-1 on her cell phone, according to KIMA-tv. 

Emily, Jones' daughter, tried calling three times, but the circuits were busy and KIMA-tv states that David ended up driving himself to the hospital because of being unable to reach 9-1-1.

KIMA-tv reports that the doctors told Jones he would have died if he waited any longer, but Verizon told KIMA that this kind of situation is only the second occurrence in five years for the cell phone company.

The reason for not reaching 9-1-1, KIMA-tv reports, is that each cellular company has a fixed number of lines (three) dedicated to the 9-1-1 center and when those are tied up a busy signal is the response when an emergency response is what is really needed.

KIMA-tv says the 9-1-1 center considers adding an extra line, but it is expensive and the system does work 99.9% of the time while using a landline will be the most reliable line of communication.