E911 waivers can be fatal
A few days before the Federal Communications Commission opened a conference on E911 on April 29, a man walking over a boardwalk connecting the north end of City Island with High Island in New York spotted a body floating face up in the water below.
Authorities identified the remains of 17-year-old Max Guarino of Manhattan through dental records. Guarino was one of four teen-age boys who set off in a dinghy on a winter night’s escapade and vanished on the Long Island Sound after making a frantic 911 call for help.
Police continue to search for the three others: Charles Wertenbaker, 16, of City Island; Andrew Melnikov, 16, of Manhattan; and Henry Badillo, 17, of the Bronx.
The four friends, aspiring musicians who had intended to form a band, were last seen about 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 24, when they left a party on City Island. Carrying oars and Wertenbaker’s acoustic guitar, the boys headed toward the marinas on the northeast shore. They apparently found a seven-foot fiberglass dinghy and launched it. The air temperature was in the teens and the water was 33 degrees; this was a foolish lark in darkness and the dead of winter that only a teen would think he could risk.
Half an hour after the boys were last seen, a police dispatcher received a 12-second call from a cell phone Henry Badillo carried. Weakly, the caller said the boat was taking on water on Long Island Sound. The call died abruptly. The dispatcher notified a supervisor, and they concluded there was too little information to dispatch help.
Only after Wertenbaker’s guitar was found by his family the next day in a cemetery by the docks did a search begin — 14 hours after the emergency call.
In February, the Police Department filed administrative charges against the dispatch supervisor, alleging a failure to properly instruct the dispatcher. Late in April, the families of the boys filed notice that they intended to bring a lawsuit charging negligence in failing to respond to the 911 call.
Certainly there is a lot of blame to go around here. The teens made bad decisions. The dispatcher and supervisor may have been ill-trained or made a fatal error, and the court case may illuminate that issue.
One thing we will never know, however, is if the cell phone could have made a difference had an E911 system been in place.
The FCC needs to find resolution on E911 deployment. Cutting through competing technologies, competing political interests and money issues is imperative. This is why we asked veteran reporter Lynette Luna to give us an overview of the current E911 situation, which is our cover story this month.
And speaking of legal tangles, we are very proud to introduce our new legal counsel and monthly columnist, Alan Tilles. Many of our readers know Alan and his sometimes-controversial stands on the issues facing the wireless industry. His column can be found on the last page of the magazine each month. We hope that Alan’s thoughts will inspire thought and debate.
