The investigation of a potentially fatal emergency response
mistake is focused on a longtime Gilroy Police Department
dispatcher who may have neglected to transfer a call for help to
the California Highway Patrol and rescue personnel.
The investigation of a potentially fatal emergency response mistake is focused on a longtime Gilroy Police Department dispatcher who may have neglected to transfer a call for help to the California Highway Patrol and rescue personnel.
Assistant Chief of Police Lanny Brown said Wednesday that after reviewing tapes of two phone calls made Tuesday by the witness of William Iwanaga’s accident on Buena Vista Avenue at No Name Uno, the evidence warranted a formal internal investigation by the police department. Brown said his decision to move toward a more formal inquiry of the dispatcher was also based on the CHP’s claims that a call from the Gilroy police dispatcher was never made.
“There is no evidence indicating that the call was transferred to CHP,” said Brown, who has yet to formally interview the dispatcher.
Brown, who is acting police chief in place of vacationing Gregg Giusiana, made copies of the dispatch tapes available to the media Wednesday. It is believed Iwanaga suffered a heart attack or stroke before losing control of his vehicle.
The dispatcher, whose name the police would not release, is still actively working Gilroy phone lines. The man was described by Brown as “conscientious and one of the best dispatchers at the GPD.” He has not been placed on administrative leave.
Iwanaga, 75, was a longtime and well-known strawberry farmer in Gilroy and San Martin.
The call
A female motorist, who police also will not identify, called Gilroy police on a non-emergency line Tuesday at 10:50 a.m. The caller reported a runaway pickup that nearly hit her as she drove by the Buena Vista and No Name Uno Avenue intersection.
The police dispatcher took down the location of the incident and told the caller he would “get somebody right on it.” However, before he could transfer the call to CHP, as required by procedure, the dispatcher lost contact with the caller.
Whatever the dispatcher did next is what’s under investigation. Since he had the location of the incident but no caller remaining on the line, procedure would have required him to phone CHP himself and ask units to be sent out to investigate.
“This is not the kind of employee I can imagine just hanging up on the call,” Brown said.
In formal interviews, the police dispatcher will have to answer specifically what he did after he recognized the female caller had lost contact. The dispatcher, Brown said, has the right to representation from a lawyer or someone from the union.
“Now that this is a formal investigation, I will have to review the 911 tapes of the CHP,” Brown said. “But I have no reason not to believe (CHP Capt.) Bob Davies when he tells me he’s looked into this and found no record of a call from us. I have to shoulder this and take ownership of this as though it happened at our level.”
CHP Sgt. Dave Hill confirmed the highway patrol received no calls from the GPD dispatcher regarding the Iwanaga accident.
A fatal mistake?
Paramedics did not arrive on the scene until a few minutes after noon, more than an hour after Iwanaga’s pickup nearly hit the caller. Crews finally were sent to the scene after a 911 call was made by the caller’s husband, who also drove along Buena Vista and noticed the white GMC pickup had veered off the road and had run over a chain link fence.
Had the witness called 911 or had the dispatcher contacted CHP as he said he would, nonparamedic units would likely have been the first to respond since there was no injury accident being reported. The CHP units would then have called for paramedics once they discovered Iwanaga. CHP officers are trained emergency medical technicians and could have delivered CPR to Iwanaga even before paramedics arrived on scene.
City Councilmember and physician Peter Arellano said a victim who has been without pulse or breath for three minutes or less has a good chance of being revived without suffering brain damage.
“When you get past five minutes of no oxygen to the brain, brain tissue dies,” Arellano said. “Sometimes people get revived, but they hardly ever recover because they were out for too long. When you discover someone and then revive them, you always hope they weren’t out of oxygen for too long.”
No matter what the scenario, city and police officials are reeling over the idea that medical help could have been at the scene nearly one hour sooner.
“In the hallways morale is OK,” Brown said. “But for this one dispatcher, I know he’s not feeling real good over this. They take ownership of their calls. Even when they do everything right and a victim doesn’t pull through, it can be tough on them and they can question everything they did.”
council briefed
City Administrator Jay Baksa briefed City Councilmen about the incident via telephone Wedneseday afternoon.
“We just got the basic information, enough not to get blindsided by you guys,” Councilman Bob Dillon said, referring to the media. “It’s my understanding a mistake was made. We need to figure out whether this was a system failure or one with personnel.”
Although a severe electrical storm last Monday night put normal GPD radio communication out of commission, Brown said he was not aware of technical problems with the department’s telephone system. He called it “a stretch” to assume the storm may have a connection to the emergency response delay.
As part of the internal investigation, Brown will analyze the amount of staff and the number of calls that came into the GPD dispatch at the time of the Iwanaga incident.
