Eyewitness to 2 crashes also raises concern about Kansas City 911 response time

An eyewitness to a fatal motorcycle accident is the latest person calling attention to the 911 hold times and emergency response times of the Kansas City Police, Fire, and EMS teams.

The accident happened last Wednesday when a motorcycle rider was heading south on Ward Parkway at about 8:50 p.m. on a Suzuki GSXR 1000, and lost control hitting a curb at Brush Creek, said Officer Donna Drake with the Kansas City Police Department.

Chris Vernaci was one of the first on the scene with other Carriage Club members, who were playing on the nearby tennis courts about 50 to 100 yards away from the accident.

A physician was among the club members who responded to the crash. After arriving on scene, the doctor checked for a pulse, but said there wasn’t one. So they immediately began chest compressions.

“We were on hold for more than 10 minutes, and by the time we got through to 911 we had already been through 5 rounds of chest compressions,” Vernaci said.

Capt. Corey Carlisle, spokesman with the Kansas City Police Department, said, “the goal is not to have anyone on hold if possible, but there are factors which can hamper that goal.”

“It is no secret we are experience a staffing shortage in our communications unit, in conjunction with an increased volume in 911 calls, which could result in greater wait times before being connected with a call taker,” Carlisle said.

Vernaci said during several rounds of compressions the clubhouse staff and a nearby lifeguard came to the scene to provide a defibrillator and CPR kit. They said the first emergency responder to arrive was a KCPD officer.

The officer was wildly unprepared, Vernaci said.

“We asked if she had a medical bag in the car but she said she didn’t, which struck me as very odd.”

He believes it was around 20 minutes before the EMS team finally arrived to the scene.

“We had completed seven rounds of chest compressions, and I remember the doctor debriefing the paramedics that showed up on everything we had done,” Vernaci said. The motorcycle rider was later declared dead at the hospital.

Jason Spreitzer, spokesman for the Kansas City Fire Department said their department got the call at 8:58 pm, and responded to the scene in under eight minutes.

Spreitzer said calls made to 911 don’t go straight to the fire department, but are routed to them if fire or EMS needs to respond.

“So there is a lot of confusion because people think since they are calling 911 that’s right to the fire department. That is not the case — They are completely separate, the actual 911 call taker is at the police department,” Spreitzer said.

‘We need change’

Two weeks prior, Vernaci said he again helped and waited with a group of club members after another car accident on Brush Creek.

“It’s been two weeks in a row,” Vernaci said.

“Poor response time two weeks in a row to the same intersection and there’s been nothing done about that.”

On Saturday, a couple who were victims of a brutal attack in at the parking lot of Arrowhead stadium also experienced delays in getting help after calling 911, waiting on hold for more than four minutes, according to KCPD data.

After making the 911 call, Johnathan Scaletty and his wife said they waited an hour until an ambulance arrived.

The National Emergency Number Association call answering standards are for 90% of calls to be answered within 15 seconds and 95% answered within 20 seconds, according to the Mid-American Regional Council’s Regional Ringtime Range.

However, Kansas City police has failed for several years to meet the National Emergency Number Association standards. Last month, only 40.76% of the calls were answered in 15 seconds and 45.05% of the calls within 20 seconds.

Carlisle said KCPD is working to hire and retain qualified call takers and dispatchers to help mitigate the increased wait times.

Mayor Quinton Lucas said on Tuesday that the wait people are experiencing when they call 911 is unacceptable.

“It think that it’s something where we need change almost immediately,” he said.

Lucas said he plans to bring up two options at the next Board of Police Commissioners meeting in two weeks that could help avoid the initial delays, including utilizing a technology solution or shifting responsiblity for taking 911 calls away from KCPD.

The Star’s Bob Cronkleton and Anna Sporre contributed to this report.