JEFF CAPLAN'S MY MINUTE OF NEWS
Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: Don’t call the WRONG emergency number!
Sep 13, 2024, 4:05 PM | Updated: 6:11 pm
A view of one of the vessels from the French Gendarmerie Nationale in the port of Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, after participating in the rescue operation after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart attempting to cross the English Channel. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)
Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.
SALT LAKE CITY — When you have an emergency, you have to make sure you’re calling the right people to the rescue. Proof comes from the middle of the English Channel where a few miles from the White Cliffs of Dover, a small boat began taking on water.
The engine quit, so the boat captain frantically called his brother in Italy. And said, “Get help.”
The brother called the Dover Emergency Line.
The only problem was, he actually called Dover Delaware Emergency. Half a world away from the boat capsizing off the coast of England.
No matter. MacKenzie Atkinson told NBC 10 Philadelphia she knew what to do.
“We get calls all the time where people are calling for like, Dover Ohio or wherever,” she explained, “And they get sent to us because when they look up the police department, we’re the first number to pop up.”
Her supervisor scrambled to find the appropriate rescue agency in Europe. MacKenzie stayed on the phone with the brother.
“I just kept reassuring him that we’re gonna have help on the way to his brother.”
While her supervisor dialed around Europe ’til he got ahold of the French Coast Guard.
It only took four minutes to find them. Thanks to their quick thinking in Delaware — and thanks in part to international protocols created here in Salt Lake less than a month ago. Because of those efforts, a rescue crew was boarding the boat in 15 short minutes. Everybody’s safe, with a story to tell about a busted boat, and calling the wrong number.
Jeff Caplan is the host of Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X.
