Rural location call out? The 999 or 112 number.

CarMuppet

Don’t know if this has been covered before but it’s just an observation: I've rung 999 twice in the last 3 years since I moved to our new house in a ‘reasonable’ rural location. We’re ~1.5km from local town and 11km from City center. The first call was to report a person 'stalking' neighbours house, the second call 2 years later was to report the location of an abandoned stolen/crashed new-ish car.

Anyway on the first occasion I was passed on to a regional station that was no were near my location... the Garda station I was routed to was in a townland area that sounded phonetically like my local town.. hence the mistake.

The second call I was passed to a main station in the city.

During both calls which lasted approx 5 mins, the majority of the time was spent trying to give directions to my location. I gave road numbers, for example "we are located at the R123 intersection with the L9876 etc". (made up road numbers there for the purpose of this post).

On the last call I was told that the R or L numbers meant nothing to the guy on the phone. He asked me for better directions. I offered GPS coordinates but was told they were no use as well. So then I describeld my location using local landmarks, for example, “After leaving Ballyqwerty drive 5 miles down from the Texaco station, hang a left for 2 miles etc etc".

I know both my calls were not life threatening etc but my question is, do an Garda, the ambulance service and fire service have access to GPS or road maps to locate rural locations quickly? It seems like this would be basic equipment that should be made available asap if not... I’m sure to be a member of the emergency service it would be very frustrating to get lost on the way to a callout. What is the best way to be guaranteed a quick response? Is it better to have the phone number of the locally 24-hour manned Garda station to hand rather than relying on 999?

Cheers,
CM

who the fug

Can you not get the direct number for your local police station

CarMuppet

who the fug wrote: »

Can you not get the direct number for your local police station

That was a quick reply... yes have it saved now.

I dialled 999 at the time looking for a Garda. Do the ambulance/Fire service have a different system?

Thanks again.

DeepSleeper

I think you should certainly have the number of your local station to hand (and saved into your mobile phone too). That should be the first number dialled in a non-emergency situation (e.g. the second example you gave).

Having said that, I think a Garda manning the phone in a station should have a map (1:50,000 Discovery Series) of the local area to hand in order to follow directions / find road numbers / locate townlands / use National Grid co-ordinates (and should have the ability to do all these things...).

Do be aware though, that three different co-ordinate systems are in use and if your GPS reads in ITM, then it would be difficult to transfer this info to Discovery Series maps which work with NGR. Many GPS units also read in Lat/Long which can be read with Discovery Series maps, but not very easily or accurately.

All Emergency Services are contacted through 999 / 112 - be aware that in areas of poor coverage, your mobile will use any available network if you dial 112 - a significant advantage over the 999 number where your mobile will stick to your network (AFAIK).

deadwood

CarMuppet wrote: »

my question is, do an Garda, the ambulance service and fire service have access to GPS or road maps to locate rural locations quickly? It seems like this would be basic equipment that should be made available asap

You're preaching to the choir!

shampon

Having great equipment, such as a GPS would be waaaaaaaaaaay to much to ask.