Brian Howey: 4 deaths in a pond, 3 dispatch centers, 1 dive team, too late

By Brian Howey

INDIANAPOLIS – There are real people out there ….

Those words from Jeff Gillaspy, my editor at the Elkhart Truth, were ringing in my mind once again as I took note of the awful news of a Carmel mother and her three daughters who slipped off a snow-covered road and into a pond. Batul Abbas had enough time at 9:34 p.m. Dec. 15 to call 911 as the family mini-van slipped into the dark, 8-foot-deep waters.

The first Carmel Fire Department units arrived at 9:38 p.m. But Carmel has no dive team. The Fishers FD has a dive team at Geist Reservoir, 12 miles away. It got its first call for help at 9:41 p.m. It wouldn’t be until 9:53 p.m. that the first family member was pulled from the van by Carmel firefighters. The Fishers dive team wouldn’t arrive until 10:01.

There are three dispatch centers in this cluster of suburban cities in Hamilton County – at Carmel, Noblesville and Fishers. They listen to each others radio traffic, but they do not respond until the primary agency calls for help.

Twenty-two minutes after the first call – and a minute before the Fishers dive team arrived - the last of the Abbas children was pulled from the van. By the next morning, 8-year-old Azmeh, 14-year-old Shaail, and 18-year-old Shazreh would all be dead.

A witness, Carlos Castaneda, told WRTV-6 news that the scene was “heart-wrenching.” 

I write about this tragedy because in Recommendation #5 of the Kernan-Shepard Commission, in its efforts to reform local government, simply states, “Create a countywide body to oversee the provision of all public safety services.” It notes that there are 1,150 local government police and fire departments. “This complex and overlapping web of local government units and service arrangements increases the overall costs of these services and has the potential to affect citizen access to critical services when minutes matter.”

When minutes matter.

It goes on to state, “Moreover, inequities exist within this complex system. A number of local governments are too small or dispersed to provide an acceptable minimum level of police and fire protection in isolation.”

Now, when I think of isolation, I think of the further reaches of places like Jackson County, or the lakes region of Steuben and Noble counties, or the winding roads outside of Lawrenceburg. The fact that “isolation” can come in a retention pond in Carmel, or Westfield or Noblesville – some of the highest-growth cities in the state – is sobering.

The report from former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Supreme Court Justice Randall T. Shepard goes on to say, “Better coordination of public safety services across local governments has enormous potential to provide improved service, equity of service and responsibility for costs and cost saving as the result of economies of scale relative to administration, staffing, training and equipment.”

Specifically, it calls for a county or regional 911 dispatch, fire suppression and emergency medical services. Kernan-Shepard recommends that this new entity be chaired and administered by a single elected county executive. “We proposed that the county executive and the mayors be given voting authority. In the event that there is no included city, the town with the largest population should have voting authority.”

Kernan-Shepard urges – with citizen input – new local service standards within 18 months. “We also strongly recommend exploration of collaboration or consolidation with adjacent counties.”

In Recommendation #6, Kernan-Shepard calls for consolidating emergency public safety dispatch by county or multi-county region, with all dispatch using the Project Hoosier SAFE-T statewide 800 MHz communication system.

Quoting from the Commission’s report: “Public safety is a critical component of effective public safety services. Local emergency public dispatch services are fragmented among municipal and county departments. Not surprisingly, citizens and policymakers often mention that such services are ripe for consolidation. Dispatch technologies that utilize geographic information system should resolve many of the limitations that previously may have warranted separate systems. Historically, public safety agencies have been unable to communicate with each other during significant events such as tornadoes.”

Or, perhaps, when a mini-van with a mother and her three daughters slips into an icy suburban retention pond that on a normal day, seems just an arms reach away.

There are real people out there.

Minutes matter.

Be thinking of these two thoughts when you press your local and county officials to unclench their fiefdoms and turf, and do what’s right for the people.

The reaction to the Kernan-Shepard report has been mixed. Some legislators are saying they will be “too busy” in 2008 to deal with anything other than property taxes.

I urge every legislator and Gov. Daniels to consider putting Recommendations #5 and #6 on the people’s agenda in January. If your state representative or senator still doesn’t have the time, you can file your candidacy for the May primary between Jan. 22 and Feb. 22. Sometimes it takes a new mindset to make common sense changes.

Capt. Ron Lipps of the Fishers FD, told WTHR-13 news after the Abbas family tragedy, “It’s just a matter of whatever their system prompted for that response type as to how and when we got called out.”

Is that good enough for you?  It wasn’t for the Abbas family.

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