Woman Claims Long Wait For Help During 911 Call

LINCOLN, Calif. (CBS13) –- Emergency dispatchers transferred a frantic woman's call from one dispatch center to another after she called 911 when rushing waters carried her car down a flooded roadway last week, audio recordings reveal.

Crystal Robinson said she didn't immediately panic when a wave of water surged around her car on December 20th, but her concern quickly turned to fear after dispatchers transferred her call twice and nearly transferred her to the wrong dispatch center.

Robinson was first connected to the California Highway Patrol dispatch in Chico, who transferred the call to Rancho Cordova.

"You're on Wise Road and Dowd?" the dispatcher asked.

"Yes, I am," Crystal said.

"One moment," the dispatcher said, putting her on hold.

After a moment of silence, Crystal can be heard on the recording, saying, "Oh my God, this isn't happening to me."

The dispatcher started to route her call to the Grass Valley Fire Department, but while her car continued to float down the road, filling with water, dispatchers transferred her instead to Cal Fire's Grass Valley dispatch center.

With Crystal finally talking to the right rescuers, fire crews scrambled to find her outside Lincoln. By the time they arrived, a Good Samaritan, Curtis Lee, had towed her car out of the flood waters.

Crystal says she waited 30 minutes for the first rescuers to arrive on scene, but computer records indicate otherwise. CHP call logs show Crystal's 911 call first coming in at 6:03pm and CAL FIRE's truck arriving 14 minutes later. But, it took more than 2 ½ minutes to get the call routed to the right dispatch center.

Despite significant improvements in 911 response times, CHP Assistant Chief Michael Champion said the technology still needs many upgrades. The heavy rains and troubled roadways that night also stretched emergency crews thin.

"The signal bounced off the tower that goes to Chico dispatch and that's why the call went there," Champion said. "I really didn't see any problem with that. I thought that was quite appropriate, given the circumstances."

Robinson disagrees and says the experience was terrifying.

"It was not treated right. I didn't panic fully until I made the 911 call," she said.

The CHP says technology is available to track cell phone calls by longitude and latitude, but it could be years before all California dispatch centers have that capability.