Franklin County Looking Into Why Citizen’s Call to 911 Went to Voicemail

Franklin County Commissioners say they will get to the bottom of why a citizen was rerouted to the Sheriff’s Department voicemail when he called 911 for a medical emergency with his wife.

Phil Rice of Lavonia told the Board he was not able to get through to a 911 dispatcher when his wife suddenly fell ill.

“On March 6 at 10:30 my wife collapsed. She couldn’t breathe. I call 911 and I get the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department; a recording. It lasted three to five minutes before I get a 911 operator. I want to know what’s the problem? Why couldn’t I get a 911 operator?

Rice said he lost that operator and had to call back. He said when he called a second time a dispatcher answered, but the voicemail recording continued to play over and over.

“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.

Commission Chair Jason Macomson apologized for what happened and said the County will look into it.

Later, Commissioner Ryan Swails said while zoning and planning for the future of the County is important, citizens deserve the best county services now and the County needs to attract quality industry to provide the tax revenue to make that happen.

“We have a 911 center that has amazing people working there. They have to work with an antiquated system. They have to flip pages to decipher what has to happen and gives them all the details they need to answer that phone call. You know, we need additional EMS help, we need additional fire full-time firefighters, we additional animal control, we additional waste management protocols. There’s so much we need as a county that are actually truly necessary services,” he said. “So when we’re considering lot size requirements, impact fees, those kinds of things, that’s a small piece of the pie in my opinion. We’ve got to take these things into consideration because we’re woefully understaffed, we’re woefully underpaid. Let’s start working towards those types of things and let’s be embracing quality industry. That, in my opinion, is going to be the solution.”

In this area, it’s not unusual for calls to Franklin County 911 to be routed to another county if you’re using a cell phone.

On Thursday, Franklin County Sheriff Steve Thomas told WLHR News that he spoke to EMS Director Terry Harris. Thomas said they’re checking to see if Rice’s call was routed to another county and then transferred to the Sheriff’s office by mistake instead of to 911 dispatch.

WLHR News is continuing to follow this story and will bring you more information when it becomes available.