Man Rescued By Phone’s Technology
Published: March 29, 2007
On the surface, it appeared to be a routine crash in broad daylight.
But there were some unusual circumstances on the extreme western edge of Douglas County Wednesday morning.
An injured man’s cell phone technology helped emergency crews locate him.
The crash site was 300th Street and Ida just outside of Valley, Nebraska.
But Wednesday morning everyone was in the dark on the location when 52-year-old Glenn Doescher called 911.
911: Hello. Fire and rescue.
Victim: Hello.
911: Hello. Can you hear me?
Victim: Hello?
911: Can you hear me, sir?
Victim: I can hear you. Can you hear me?
911: I can now. What’s your address?
Victim: I have no idea where I’m at.
Two years ago there was a similar problem.
The circumstances were much different. There was a blizzard and Michael Wamsley and Janelle Hornickle were high on meth and lost in rural Sarpy County.
They made numerous cell phone calls to 911 but the technology wasn’t in place to track them.
The couple died.
Fast forward to Wednesday morning.
This time technology was on the victim’s side.
911: We are on the way. I want you to know that. Let me know if you hear sirens, ok?
Victim: (groans)
911: Try to not move too much, ok?
Victim: Uh-huh.
“We had his location early on but we wanted to make sure of the location. It was obvious people were driving by and nobody could see him,” says Douglas County 911 director Mark Conrey.
911: “Here is the address of the cell phone tower he is hitting right now?”
Hours later, 911 ran Channel 6 News through a similar scenario.
The GPS chip in the phone is able to bounce off the cell phone towers and show emergency crews, within feet, the caller’s location.
“Western Douglas County is mostly rural. The crash happened 12-hours ago. Without the cell phone technology, we could still be looking for him,” says Conrey.
911: Sir, Do you believe you’re trapped in the vehicle?
Victim: Yeah.
911: You are trapped.
Victim: I hear sirens.
911: You hear sirens.
He hears sirens!
Emergency crews pulled Doescher from his pickup.
He’s recovering in the hospital.
Investigators believe Doescher, who was on his way to work in valley from Fremont, had some sort of medical condition that caused him to lose control of the pickup.
Three things needed to come together for it to work.
The cell phone had a GPS chip. Older phones don’t have one.
In addition, the towers were equipped with the tracking technology and the victim was able to call 911.
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