"NY" wrote in message
...
"Tim+" wrote in message
...
ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).
You know the names of the villages and that is all.
Could the phone operator not work it out?
Optimist! Ive found trying to give positions to emergency services an
incredibly frustrating experience. The main problem being that theyve
not
heard of the internet and search engines. Also, it takes an age to get
through to anyone who can understand grid references or any normal system
of identifying position that doesnt involve street names and house
numbers.
€śWhat three words€ť seems like a nice idea but I dont hold out much hope
of
any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race
When I had to report a crash on the opposite carriageway of the M1 late at
night, I used the "M1 A 123.4" emergency location sign, but said "Accident
is on the opposite B carriageway, roughly opposite this sign". The
operator wanted to know the f-ing postcode! When I couldn't give one
(random locations on motorways don't have postcodes) she asked what
junction or service station I had last passed. I'd no idea: I was
somewhere in the middle of my journey, a long way from the junctions I'd
joined at and was planning to leave it, so my location was "somewhere in
between". I could give a very rough idea, but no more than that.
I was rather horrified that the police 999 operator couldn't handle the
information on the "M1 A 123.4" sign, because they are there for this very
purpose: giving a location in the event of an emergency. When I got home I
emailed the police force for that area to report the problem because there
was clearly a training issue. I had a reply saying that they'd found the
recording of my call and agreed that I had been very precise and very
unambiguous and had given all the information that the operator *should*
have needed. The control room had identified that more training was
needed...
On a previous occasion I had to give my postcode, and the operator had
difficulty understanding the radio phonetic alphabet, which was an even
worse deficiency of training.
Not just training. I use it routinely when talking to normal
call centers for internet services etc and I dont recall ever
having anyone not understand what I meant.
And I use the proper names having leant them
for the flying and amateur radio licenses.
She asked me to give the letters their normal names, and then we had the
expected "is that P or B" scenario that the phonetic alphabet is designed
to avoid.