The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

p 2 weekender october 21 1995 st t iyy 911 cellular phones may cause delays in response time i using cellular telephones in york region to dial 911 dur ing an emergency could mean critical delays in response officials have confirmed last sept 15 a 35yearold york region man suffered a heart attack while playing basketball in thornhill a cel lular phone was used to alert emergency personnel but the original call was sent to the georgian ambulance centre in barrie for dispatch and the man died before help arrived a similar incident in was reported in vaughan last summer some technical changes can be made but if s not going to solve the problem regional councillor gord landon said it emergency response is just going to be slower with cellular phones under york regions 911 telephone system calls are initially answered by trained bell canada staff at a a cen tral emergency bureau in ottawa the caller is asked if they require fire police or ambulance help once that isestablished the call is forwarded to the appro priate local dispatcher in sec onds when a conventional sta tionary phone is used the sys tem automatically displays a callers address but there is no specific location transmit ted by cellular phone calls according to landon the system automatically routes ambulance calls with no spe cific address to the barrie dis patch office ambulance centre manager al duffin said the barrie cen tre dispatches units for auro ra newmarket and georgina y-v- gglv wvsj stouffville ambulances are alerted from oshawa usually thornhill ambulances are dispatched frommississauga landon said it took about 13 minutes and two phone calls for ambulance and firefighting crews to arrive on the scene sept 15 officials are still trying to deter mine why it took three minutes just to transfer the call from bar rie to local firefighting dispatch he added this is too long of a time frame to have the ambulance respond ing he said landon noted the first call did not indicate a heart attack emer gency such information would have triggered a tiered response involving fire department person nel equipped to handle heart attack victims he said all fire crews are dispatched from a central newmarket office and usually provide faster response than ambulance use of a cellular phone wasone of sever al factors that may have con tributed to delays he said landon used to be 911 manage ment chairman the committee was dissolved after the system began operation discussions are being arranged to address the problem mt m ftr ydui october 1905 tliiswmlrtmemg halloween harmless or satanic fcxtwnk chadabmtmktvtrt 1 plmmctt 905294 6960 ttnvai janet g miliaris barrister and solicitor 2300 lawrence ave east suite 1 1 lawrence ave at kennedy road scarborough ontario tcl 416 2880887 family law civil and criminal litigation employment law wills and estates eliminates 82 of mold mildew and bacteria from your home or office improve air flow and can substantially lower your energy costs steamatic clean is healthy clean ofmarkham ovor 20 vsmt fomftatc free inhome estimates b kbntui commtrclal 416 2832576 newmarket 905 8952456 1800387o154 s moneyback guarantee s