Ocean City Maryland beach hummer accident

[h2co-pilot]

Originally posted by ShaggyZr2:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DRTYFN:
Could you do everyone a favor and change your screen name? We've already got a Shaggy, and it's just too weird seeing intelligent coherent posts with that name over them. It's like some kind of Bizarro world or Twilight Zone.

Thanks in advance.

Yeah...what he said. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah...what he said.

[Hummoron]

From what I've read, the rangers did search, just didn't find them. I'm sure that if they did, they would have done all they could to save them. There is absolutely no indication that the rangers blew off the seach just because it was a hummer. Nor did the blow it off because they were trespassing, we only learned that until later.

If someone calls 911 while jumping from the Empire State Building, are you going to blame the rescue workers for not catching him? Your analogies about fire and scissors are as bad as mine, Marcmedic.

There were a lot of unknowns at the time about the situation. Hindsight is 2020. Why didn't Onstar make a bigger deal out of it? Why didn't they ask to be redirected to the local rescue team instead of only dealing with the 911 middleman? How many rangers were on duty and what level were they? It was a Saturday night in the middle of winter, do they do enough rescue work of this type that requires their top skilled rangers to be on staff 24x7? (and I am by no means knocking the skills of the rangers who were there)

Onstar took the call. They were the only ones who might have fully grasped the severity of the situation. They should have monitored the progress of the search directly. Maybe Onstar needs to have their own rescue people that can be put in to service at these times? They are the ones making the promise about getting rescued.

[Marcmedic]

Mummoron, the problem is that they called off their search. You have repeatedly pointed out that the rangers were not at fault. The fact is this. They died HOURS after the rangers called off the search, and they died of hypothermia. If they kept searching but didn't find them in time, that's another story. They didn't use all of their available resources. The person working at the PSAP that took the call from OnStar is just as much to blame as the rangers. Now you're starting to point the finger at OnStar, saying that they should have made a bigger deal out of it. OnStar is in no way required to do this. They called the local PSAP (public safety answering point) and they are supposed to handle it, not OnStar. Once again the finger gets pointed right back at the park rangers. I could care less about what kind of vehicle they were driving. You made this about the H2. You obviously have no knowledge about how the 911 system works or the responsibilities of emergency responders, yet you come up with these lame theories on who is to blame. Are all park rangers to blame. No. Are all the park rangers at that facility as negligent in performing their duties as the ones on that night? No again. But to think for one minute that the park rangers on duty and their dispatcher that night handled the situation appropriately is just plain ignorant.

[Marcmedic]

And by the way, OnStar makes a promise to inform Police/Fire/EMS in the case of an emergency...which they did. I wasn't aware that on your planet of stupidity that a private business should have to monitor government agencies to make sure they do their damn jobs. You're an idiot, plain and simple. I actually think we're all dumber from reading your posts.

[tower]

Marc's pretty well got you on his 811p.m. post, Hummoron.

[Hummoron]

They died HOURS after the rangers called off the search, and they died of hypothermia.

I'm sorry, but I missed the news reports when they pinpointed the time of death and gave the time table of the park rangers activities. Could you please post that so I can be better informed. Thank you.

[Marcmedic]

Every time you've been proven wrong you come up with something else. Why not address the issues at hand. THEY CALLED OFF THE SEARCH WITHOUT FINDING ANYTHING!!! They never called OnStar back. They never called in any additional resources to help look. A simple call for assistance to any agency with a helicopter with infared capabilities would have been able to find them. You can't tell me that there wasn't time to find them. They both died of exposure, not from injuries sustained in the wreck. And before you paint the finger at OnStar again think about this, can you call for a search and rescue helicopter directly???Neither can OnStar

[Hummoron]

Marcmedic,

I'm just asking to read the same reports that you obviously have that states when they died and when and what the park rangers were doing.

You posted as fact that they called off the search and then the two people died. I am more than willing to believe you, I just want to read it for myself.

Point me to the facts and I'll stop being so stupid....well, I'll try.

[Marcmedic]

Read the first post. They cancelled another agency that was responding, and they didn't start a full blown search and resce operation until AFTER they found the first body over 12 hours after the intial call.

[Hummoron]

Uhm, that post states:

“How far away was your deputy?” the park ranger asked.

“Well, we cancelled him. Do you want us to go ahead and send him back in?” the 911 operator replied.


So, it was 911 that cancelled a police deputy and not the ranger. What is a police car going to do on the beach besides get stuck?

Should the ranger have called for a full blown search and rescue when all he was given was:

“The incident we have is going on at the National Parks Service,” the 911 operator informed an Assateague Park ranger. “An emergency button was pushed to OnStar on a vehicle that’s a Hummer somewhere out there and they gave us coordinates, but we have no idea where this is.”

Almost all (but this one) beach emergencies are a stuck truck. Should he respond to all such calls in the future as if it was this one? Go back and read shaggy's (or whatever his new name is) about what the ranger's life is normally like at this specific park.

[ROX]

Does anyone know if they found the Hummer at or near the GPS coordinates that Onstar relayed to Emergency Services?

What were the actual coordinates the Hummer was at when it was found?

[crystalstarkey]

I have to admit, when i found out about the accident i didnt know there was any evidence of onstar so i automatically blamed them. then later finding out they did respond i emailed them and they sent me a letter back. i learned that they did do what they had to do. but why did they not call back to see if everything was ok? Onstar has told me its not their job to follow up. Why didnt onstar keep them on the line incase they could make verbal contact? I dont know. Im not blaming onstar. the thing that makes me mad is that they cancelled the search with out finding anyone. Adam and Jen died of hypothermia. Which means they could have been saved.

[h2co-pilot]

Did the rangers have access to mobile GPS units? Only recently has a dispatcher been able to shout out coordinates only and say GO!

[Hummoron]

they cancelled the search with out finding anyone

According to Shaggy, people frequently get "rescued" (ie: unstuck) and don't call off the search.

Onstar is still new. Maybe if it was their policy to follow-up, everyone would be better served. Getting a call from Onstar saying "We're tracking the vehicle and see that they're moving again. Did everything go ok?" would certainly avoid wasting a ranger's time looking for someone who was no longer there.

[Marcmedic]

People frequently call 911 with a medical emergency, and then decide to get in their own car and drive to the hospital before units arrive. Does this mean I don't have to continue on the call. The policy where I work is if someone calls 911, then calls back to cancel, we still send a unit to their location to check. Just becuase people are inconsiderate and don't inform them when their "emergency" has resolved itself before the rangers arrive doesn't mean that you can apply that line of thinking to every call. Complacency is a bad thing in my line of work and will get you in a load of trouble. So now you agree with Shaggy and since they've had false calls before it's OK that they treated this like one also. You keep making my point. Thanks. At least 95% of the automatic fire alarms that we go on are false. We still send multiple pieces of equipment and we all run hot to get there. We know it's probably going to be nothing. And it's also a waste of time and resources. But the 5% of the time that it really is a fire it pays off. We treat every call like it's the real thing and don't half-ass routine calls. I think you can see why.

[Hummoron]

The fire alarm goes off in the building I work about twice a year. The fire department doesn't send over the entire force, but just one truck to look for the fire, which turns out to be a faulty sensor (even though they were just tested the week before).

The fire department's response has been more than adequate so far. However, if it ever turned out to be a real emergency, they would have wasted valuable time. From the emotions here, I should be looking for someone's head if that ever happens. Maybe I should start demanding that we get a full fledge response each and every time.

[Marcmedic]

WHat you probably don't see is that they sent several trucks which were cancelled by the first arriving unit when they arrived on scene with no smoke showing. Sometimes the alarms gets reset before the engine arrives. The engine should continue to check while the rest of the incoming units get cancelled.

[Hummoron]

The beach is a big place to search and not easily done. Not quite the same as being sent to a street address. Everytime someone didn't call off a search, they would have to go out with at least a 100 people, helicopters, and vehicles to search the entire island until they could prove that no one was there not accounted for.

I guess it could be done.

A lot cheaper just to close the beach so that we can avoid this in the future. $70/truck (does anyone know how many stickers they issue? 1000? 2000?) just isn't worth it.

[Marcmedic]

Someone stuck in the sand vs. someone screaming in the background after a distress button was pushed should have provoked a different response.