Saturday, April 18, 2015

Scary 911 situation for streets with 2 names

From DNA Info:

When Forest Hills resident James Freeley called 911 earlier this month because he suspected someone had broken into his car, the operator couldn't find his address.

Five minutes later, the dispatcher finally found Freeley's home on Puritan Avenue. That was only after he provided the nearest cross streets and the precinct he lives in, he said.

“If somebody was having a heart attack, taking five minutes to figure out where you were is a problem,” said Freeley, 72.

Mix-ups such as these are "a chronic issue citywide," including in Hamilton Beach, a small neighborhood near JFK that has had street names changed twice in the past couple of decades, said state Sen. Joseph Addabbo who represents the area.

The NYPD, which oversees the 911 dispatch system, could not immediately say how many similar incidents there have been. It was also not clear how many dual-named streets there are in the city.

In the Forest Hills case, the street was only logged in the 911 system as 75th Road. Puritan Avenue only applies to the portion of the street inside the private community of Forest Hills Gardens and the name has stood since the street was first created in 1909, according to Queens historian Michael Perlman.

A similar situation applies to busy 71st Avenue, which becomes Continental Avenue in Forest Hills Gardens.

3 comments:

JQ said...

This is the stupidest thing I ever heard. Especially 71st to Continental, that avenue has been like that for at least 30 years and the subway stop is named after it, I remember when Beefsteak Charlie's was there and the sign on the corner said continental. There really is no excuse for mistakes like this.


Puritan ave. also. Come on people.

Anonymous said...

I thought the gardens was private. They should have their own police,like Seagate in bklyn.......

Jackson Heights Johnny said...

My God!

How difficult is it for NYPD to send someone into the neighborhood, conduct a street by street survey of the problem streets, and just fix the problem once and for all?

Jeez!