911 call to cop: "Help! bike Wreck!" Cop Replies: Oh yeah? Too bad! (hangs up)

dmp

Senior Member
May 12, 2004
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Enterprise, Alabama
Since i can't use the search tool for 911 or Cop....

hope this isn't a repost: It's Horrible... :cry:

(Lisbon-WTNH, Mar. 21, 2005 6:00 PM) _ A state trooper is in trouble tonight for his response to an urgent call for help. The trooper was answering 911 calls from friends of a man who had just crashed his motorcycle.

by News Channel 8's Sara Welch
State police say effective today, Trooper Robert Peasley is suspended for 15 days without pay.

The disciplinary actions follows months of an internal investigation into 911 calls from the scene of a motorcycle crash.

"This is where all the panic and mayhem began."

Along this road in Lisbon is where Jim Sawyer's son Justin lay dying.

"And there was a pool of blood coming from his head."

On August 17th, 2004, the 21-year-old crashed his motorcycle. His friends did what anyone would do in an emergency.

"I called 911 right away."

The call rang into the state police barracks in Montville.

Instead of comfort, Russell Shepard was shocked by the trooper's response on the other end of the line.

"State police 911.
Yeah I want to report a street bike accident on Incinerator Road in Taftville. Someone crashed on their street bike.
"Yeah... too bad."

Too bad says the state police dispatcher who then hangs up.

"I was shocked, thought I had the wrong number at first," says Russell Shepard.

"So I picked up the phone and called 911," says Liz Niegel.

Liz Niegel made the second frantic call.

"State police 911.
"Hi, I need to report a street bike accident what?
"Hello?"
"I need to report a street bike accident.
"Was that the one on Incinerator Road?
"Yeah. Help will get there. Shouldn't be playing games."

"Shouldn't be playing games," says the trooper, who then hangs up.

"Just the fact that my friend was there laying there helpless and it seemed like they didn't even care," says Niegel.

"I am absolutely outraged every time I hear that 'too bad' and then click," says Jim Sawyer, Victim's Father.

Jim Sawyer asks how someone who is supposed to care could act like he cared less.

"Anybody who could sit there on a switch board answering 911 calls knowing full well everything he says his being monitored and turn around and make the rude commentary that he did," says Sawyer. "No one deserves to be spoken to that way."

It wasn't until the third emergency call that a female dispatcher assessed the situation.

"How bad are the injuries?"
"He's not moving, he's bleeding from his ear.
"Is he breathing?.
"Yes, he is breathing."
"Tell people not to touch him. I will send an ambulance out there ok?"

Sawyer expected that response from the first call.

"I only know I would have felt a whole lot more comfortable if I had heard people on the other end of the line of that 911 call with some heart and caring," says Sawyer.

"He was rude and it was just an outrageous way to answer an emergency phone call."

A week after those calls, Justin Sawyer died from a severe head injury.

"I can't even begin to comment on that, he was my life," says Sawyer.

For his father, the troopers response that August evening will haunt him forever.

"It will play over and over and over in my mind for the rest of my life," says Sawyer. "What I want to see is this officer removed from his position, he's not fit to wear the uniform, that's what I think."

Jim Sawyer wants to make sure no one in an emergency situation calls 911 and gets this kind of response.

Tonight state police tell us that Trooper Robert Peasley's comments were unprofessional and inappropriate.

The agency apologizes if the actions added to the family's pain.

It also found that the behavior did not impact response time.

Trooper Peasley has 18 years with the state police and the department says he has been a stellar trooper with a long and unblemished career.

Meanwhile, the state police union tells us Trooper Peasley is remorseful for his comments but the union says the discipline is inappropriate and harsh.

The family of Justin Sawyer says a 15 day suspension isn't tough enough.

Me: Cop
:chains:
 

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