911 is the emergency number here in Canada if you’re unfamiliar. 112, 999, etc if you’re elsewhere IIRC.
Do you remember the first time you had to use it?
What were you thinking, feeling?
First time I had to use it in earnest I was working front end at a post office and there was a random guy doing maintenance behind me in the back area of the office. Barely said a word to him, he barely said a word to me. I was fairly busy and he seemed kinda gruff.
Bit later all of a sudden he taps me on the shoulder pretty aggressively, I turned and was getting ready to give him some not-polite words about touching me like that and how he better not damn well do that again but I stopped when I saw the look on his face.
He just says, “call 911.”
I look blankly at him, getting some mental whiplash, and just dumbly go, “what?”
Him, “I’m having a fucking heart-attack, CALL 911!”
That got through so I called them, gave them the info. He went back into the office and laid down.
I was a bit in shock myself and just looked at the customers in line in front of me and said to the woman, “he’s having a heart attack, sorry.”
Honestly think I could’ve handled the situation better, at least gone back and been more empathetic but I was caught between him, customers, and making sure I was visible so I could wave the paramedics to where they needed to go.
The post office there was tucked into the back corner and most of the store didn’t even know about it until I told them later that day.
Never heard anything after, no clue if the guy survived, or not. Didn’t see him again either way.
You?
I was driving on the highway when the truck in front of me started swerving subtly and strangely. I told my copilot that the truck driver was probably texting.
As I changed lanes to pass the truck, I asked my copilot if they could see the truck driver texting. But I couldn’t pass the truck because the truck swerved violently to the lane I was going to use.
That’s when it hit me: this driver was very drunk. I immediately grabbed my phone and gave it to my copilot and told them to call the police. I was horrified because the truck was massive and we were getting close to a highway exit that sometimes has traffic.
We gave the police the details: the license plate, the location, the way the guy was driving, and they said they were going to send someone.
I stayed behind the truck for a couple of minutes. We didn’t want to pass him and have him crush our car. So we just looked at how this drunk guy swerved, accelerated, and broke erratically.
After some time, we finally got to the area with traffic, and luckily the truck driver stopped and didn’t crash into anything. We heard sirens behind us and that’s when I decided to finally pass the truck and keep driving.
I’ve called for drunk or similarly erratic drivers a few times. One of them was in a tanker truck and had several near-misses before he found a place to stop. The cops started following and he tightened up his driving. I’m not sure if they actually contacted him.