Dial 9 before 911? Texas hotel death prompts petition

[Hum]

DALLAS ?  Hank Hunt's granddaughter tried calling 911 from the East Texas hotel room where she could hear her mother dying, just as she was taught to do in an emergency. She didn't know she had to dial 9 on the hotel phone first.

"Papa," Hunt remembers the 9-year-old telling him later. "I tried, but it wouldn't work."

Now Hunt has launched a national push to require hotels and other businesses to do away with dialing anything before calling 911. So far, an online petition for a federal law has gotten 390,000 signatures, and one 911 advocacy group says Hunt has hit on a perhaps under-documented issue.

"I never dreamed that it would take a life of its own like this," Hunt said this week. "There's been a lot of good people out there helping us."

Hunt's petition calls for "Kari's Law," in honor of his daughter, Kari Hunt Dunn, who was stabbed to death inside a Baymont Inn hotel, allegedly by her estranged husband. The law as described by the petition would require hotels and motels to upgrade to "Enhanced 911" systems that would let guests call for help just by dialing 911 and give the operator the caller's exact location.

The National Emergency Number Association, a group representing 911 call takers and industry professionals, says such changes are long overdue.

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[Nogib]

Utterly pointless.  If people are too stupid to operate a phone, they aren't worth saving.

[+virtorio MVC]

Utterly pointless.  If people are too stupid to operate a phone, they aren't worth saving.

The girl in this situation wasn't stupid, she was nine.

[Melfster]

The whole point of 911 is to be universal.  I don't see why business should get pass.

[Michael Scrip]

That's how it was at my college long ago:

 

9-9-1-1

 

It's probably the same today.

[Studio384]

First of all, this was a 9-year-old  kid. Second of all, I can't imagen that nobdoy would forget in this kind of situation that you have to dial another number first.

Utterly pointless.  If people are too stupid to operate a phone, they aren't worth saving.

[SnoopZ]

Utterly pointless.  If people are too stupid to operate a phone, they aren't worth saving.

No i think your post is utterly pointless, i would be ashamed if i was you!

[Anibal P]

You would think that a properly configured phone system would know to bypass the restrictions for that particular set of numbers, better yet, dialling 9 to get an outside line is dumb anyways, any other number would have been a better choice considering how impolrtan 911 is here in the US

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Utterly pointless.  If people are too stupid to operate a phone, they aren't worth saving.

 

And yet, you're too stupid to read the article. 

 

Define: hypocrisy. 

[Michael Scrip]

The whole point of 911 is to be universal.  I don't see why business should get pass.

It's not really that businesses are getting a pass... it's just the way their phone systems have always worked.

 

Dial 9 to get an outside line and then dial your number

 

Nowadays... the phone systems should be digital... and configurable.  The system should simply recognize "911" and just put the call through.

 

I can't believe they haven't thought of this by now though...