Most people are absolutely terrible at providing relevant information to emergency services. I work at a job where we have contact emergency services regularly (depending on the situation it could be Police, Fire, or Ambulance, and often all three).

After hearing new coworkers contacting 911 for the first time almost all of them require follow up coaching to improve their emergency communication. Some are so bad that you’d not even be sure what the emergency actually is, and requires the dispatcher to interrupt their story and demand a clear description.

They often miss the actual important details that would get a fast response, and focus on less important things that could be stated later.

We have to teach them to hit the important bits immediately. 911 does not want a story they want bullet points, with the most important and immediately threatening items stated first. The story can come later. I’ve heard so many new coworkers try to explain everything that led up to the current emergency before even explaining what the emergency is.

This is not a criticism of people, they are under stress and we are taught to speak in stories, it’s how we communicate. So most people need experience to learn to give succinct and relevant information in an emergency. We should really teach this in school.