NYC EMS 911 System Crashes Twice In Two Days

The FDNY computer system that dispatches 911 calls to EMTs had to be resuscitated after it mysteriously crashed for several hours Friday — and again yesterday.

Several sources said the sudden outages left Emergency Medical Services dispatchers scrambling for pen and paper to take down calls by hand.

Dispatchers fell back on radios to send ambulances out on calls — but had no way of knowing where units were or which ones were available.

"They had to read every job to the units over the radio, and the units had to write everything down in the ambulance. It takes forever," said an EMT who works The Bronx.

Normally the computer system creates a screen for each call with all the necessary info.

The first outage occurred between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Friday, several sources said. The system also crashed again at around 2 a.m. yesterday for about an hour, the sources said.

No operational or patient issues were reported during the hours the system went down, and response time held steady, said FDNY spokesman Jim Long.

(Source: NY Post)