Trip to Calgary

James departed Hanley yesterday afternoon enroute to deliver his load to Calgary. At about 8:15 p.m. last night he called to advise that just outside of Hanna, Alberta he smoked a deer. There was damage to his bumper and driver's side fender but other than that no problems with the truck and he was continuing on with his trip.

One interesting thing was that James called 911 to report his accident. In Saskatchewan we don't report accidents with wildlife as long as there are no injuries, the animal is deceased and the vehicle can be driven away from the scene. Mind you hundreds of folks do still call and attempt to report the accidents every day. The folks down in Regina have it down pat answering that 'no if there is no injuries, deer is dead and your vehicle is drivable, you do not have to report to the RCMP. You just report to SGI and they take it from there. There are just too many deer accidents everyday to have the police respond to these type of accidents that end up essentially being SGI reports. I wasn't aware that Alberta did not have the same policy, but I guess not.


Of course the operators in Regina have to ensure that the deer is off the road and not a traffic hazard. If not they advise the caller to remove it to the side of the road. The operators can then advise the Department of Highways of a deer along the side of the road for pickup. However, from my travels into the city I would say the Department of Highways leave the carcasses for the most part to the coyotes and ravens to clean up. Mind you these animals may be from the result of accidents that happen and are not actually called into the Regina Communication Center RCMP.

Anyhow when James called 911 from his cell phone to report the accident. After he hung up he tried to call someone else and his cell phone would not work. He got a notice that his phone was 'restricted to emergency calling' (or something similar). What he had to do was actually power down his phone and then power it back up and the phone would be back in business. Now I'm not sure if this is a phone specific thing or all cell phones that call 911 are restricted in the same way.

It's funny, but I have never had to call 911 in my life. I've answered thousands of the calls, but I've never actually had to call one in myself. In actual fact most people have probably never had to call 911 in their lives. Then there are some people that seem to have the number on speed dial as they use it 4-5 times (or more) a day. When I was working we used to call these folks the 'frequent flyer' callers. They misuse the 911 system for everything from minor thefts that occurred weeks (years ago) to stupid calls such as 'their 10 year old kid won't go to bed' and wanting immediate police action.

Of course all calls have to be answered and dealt with as you don't know what the call is going to be until you have actually spoken to the complainant.