A man in Pennsylvania called 911 to report a fire at home, when a dispatcher allegedly hung on him. The reason? The Allentown resident was a Spanish speaker and failed to talk in English when the agent asked him to. It was in July 2020 when Heriberto Santiago Jr. dialled the Lehigh County’s 911 center. He lived with his 14-year-old nephew, Andres Javier Ortiz. A fire broke out in their home and Santiago called the emergency center, reportedly frantically begging for help.
A lawsuit was filed in federal court, later, which says, the forklift operator named Sonya O’Brien “did not speak or understand the Spanish language nor did she utilize a Spanish language helpline nor did any other dispatcher assist her in this regard." According to the complaint, when Santiago attempted to notify the dispatcher and “frantically begged" for emergency assistance, she instructed him to speak in English before hanging up.
The lawsuit further stated that as a consequence of Ms O’Brien’s lack of training, negligent and outrageous conduct in hanging up on Santiago, both he and Ortiz perished in the fire. Her uncaring and reckless action and failure to take necessary steps to provide instant assistance caused the end of two lives. As per the coroner’s report, the duo’s demise was because of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide toxicity.
The lawsuit was filed on October 20 in the Pennsylvania Eastern District Court. As per the suit, the witnesses revealed that in 2019, the emergency call center did not consider incorporating “county trained dispatchers to utilize language helplines.” Additionally, the dispatchers mishandled emergency calls, “which created concerns to county residents."
The suit contains a lengthy account of discriminatory practices faced by operators of colour at the 911 emergency call center. Another shocking revelation in the complaint was that the dispatcher has openly expressed dislike towards attending calls from Spanish people, and when on the phone with a Spanish speaker, often “refused to use a ‘language line’ translation service.”
As per a report in Insider, the defendant in the case, Lehigh County has dismissed the case, calling the allegation “baseless.” According to the center’s statement, Santiago had spoken to the dispatcher in English and the call taker “told Mr. Santiago that help is on the way; the fire department has been dispatched."
The statement also said a minute prior to Santiago, the dispatcher received a call from a Spanish-speaking individual. The call was immediately transferred to the translation line, “which is our standard operating procedure."
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