CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Ingleside resident Riley Johnston is seeking answers after he said his multiple 911 calls went unanswered Sunday afternoon.
Riley said he feared the worst after his his wife, Helen, started feeling sick. He said he called 911, but could never get through.
"I called there and I never got to contact them," he said. "I just got a busy signal."
Johnston said he decided to drive Helen to the ambulance station a few blocks away from their home.
Helen's blood pressure was high, and had to be transported to a hospital in Corpus Christi.
TRI County EMS Executive Director Carrie De Leon said she isn't aware of an instance where 911 hasn't been answered, but if there was a failure at some point, then there are redundancies in place to take care of those calls.
"For the city of Ingleside, they patch us through the Aransas Pass Police Department and they dispatch all of our calls," De Leon said.
The Ingleside Police Department released a statement regarding the incident.
"We began to investigate why these calls were abandoned, we learned that the calls were only being transmitted on a secondary console in our Communications Center—and not on both consoles as they should be, and as all other calls are when someone dials 911. We included the Coastal Bend Council of Governments 911 Coordinator and the Intrado Technician in our discussions. Numerous test calls were completed throughout the day, and the calls successfully connected and were audible on both consoles in our Communications Center.
"The investigation into this matter will continue and will include the Coastal Bend Council of Governments and Intrado so that we can resolve this situation and ensure our 911 system is working effectively for all emergency calls."
