Fr. BOC Gives Update on 911 Call to Voicemail Incident

Franklin County Commissioners gave an update regarding a Franklin County citizen who called 911 for help when his wife collapsed but instead was transferred to voicemail.

Phil Rice told the Board at their work session last week that when he called 911 to get help for his wife, he was transferred to the Franklin County Sheriff’s office voicemail.

His wife later passed away.

Commissioners expressed their condolences and promised to get to the bottom of what happened.

At the Board of Commissioners meeting Monday evening, Commission Chair Jason Macomson said they believe they know what happened.

“This was very concerning and so we conducted an internal review and we were able to determine what actually happened with his call,” Macomson said. “This is one of those instances where the call was made with a cellphone, and whenever you make a call with a cellphone the nearest tower picks that up and it must send it to the nearest jurisdiction. Well, the nearest tower happened to be in Oconee County, SC. So, his 911 call went to Oconee County 911 and they had to work to transfer it back to Franklin County and that cost some time and we understand that was very distressing for him.”

In the Gumlog community, where Rice lives, calls made to 911 from a cellphone are typically routed to Oconee County, SC dispatch. When they pick up, they will say they are Oconee County 911 and the caller must ask to have the call transferred to Franklin County 911.

Rice said when he called for help a second time and finally got a Franklin Co 911 dispatcher, the voicemail was still playing and the dispatcher had to shout over the voicemail recording to give him CPR instructions.

The Commission chairman said the County also conducted an internal review of the Franklin County Dispatch procedures and found nothing wrong.

“We conducted an internal review and our 911 staff handled everything appropriately as soon as they received the call. And that’s one of the things that we regretted that he experienced that and he certainly is in our thoughts and prayers and has our condolences. But we did what to assure everyone that we did follow through on that. It’s very concerning. We wanted to know exactly what happened and we wanted to report back on that and not have it just still hanging out there,” he said.

Rice said last week, he did not fault the Franklin County dispatcher.

“I called back after I lose her. I tell her what’s going and she tells me to do CPR. She does her job. When I called back the recording goes on over and over and she (911 dispatcher) has to yell over the recording to tell me what to do and that the ambulance is on the way. The ambulance is 4 miles from my house. If I hadn’t had to go through that five minutes (of voicemail) she (wife) would be alive today,” he told the Board last week.

Macomson added that the problem lies with the communications company using that cell tower and the County has no control over their procedures.