When an emergency situation arises people usually cannot think straight. Remembering which number to call depending on the type of an emergency seems like a herculean task as the paramedics, the police, the municipality, and the civil defense all have different numbers. Residents have repeatedly complained that having different emergency numbers are confusing. Precious time is wasted until one thinks of the correct number to call and ask for professional help. The numbers are confusing for adults, let alone young children who may need help in the absence of their parents. Professionals in health, security, safety, and educational governmental bodies in the Kingdom see a dire need for implementing one, nation-wide emergency number that will connect the person in distress to the relevant authorities in cases of emergencies. Other countries around the world have only one emergency number, which all residents, young and old, remember by heart. The Director General of Education in Qassim region, Abdullah Bin Ibrahim Al-Rakyan, strongly supports this suggestion and believes that a unified emergency number should be adopted in the Kingdom that will tie together all different sectors. According to Al-Rakyan, a unified emergency number will facilitate the jobs of those involved in saving lives and will also increase society's awareness in how to correctly respond to emergency situations. “The directorate in Qassim has already assigned and announced a telephone number for all educational facilities to call if there is any technical, maintenance, or safety problem in the school. This initiative has been highly successful in circumventing many problems. Another advantage of a unified number to call in case of emergencies is that it will enable researchers to collect statistics and conduct studies on the numbers, types, and locations of catastrophic events that occur in the Kingdom each year. The more information and data we have, the better the governmental authorities will be able to plan for disasters, manage crisis, and serve our communities,” Al-Rakyan told Al-Riyadh newspaper. The director of Emergency and Crisis Management at Qassim Health Affairs, Dr. Fadl Al-Fadl, said, “It is imperative to create a three-digit emergency hotline number that is the same across all regions of the Kingdom to receive phone calls in case of emergencies or natural disasters. This phone call is the link between the suffering person or group and the rescuers. With one phone call, the telephone hotline operator can help the victim reach the fire department, the Red Crescent, or the traffic police.” Col. Abdul Mohsen Bin Fahd Al-Mujahed also shares the same view. “The current telephone operators who respond to calls are insufficient and are falling short in light of the growth in population in all towns and cities in the Kingdom. Not only do we need a unified emergency number to be memorized by all citizens and residents, but we also need an adequately staffed telephone operator center that works round the clock to receive such calls and immediately direct the person in need to the correct department.” “Since we have several different emergency telephone numbers, the average resident does not memorize them all and does not know which correct number to call for his/her specific emergency situation. Very often we have someone who wants to report a traffic violation or wants to reach the traffic police mistakenly calls the civil defense department instead. One, three digit number would be easier for all society members to learn and use during any crisis. Once accomplished, media should help in spreading this number and educating the public on who to call during emergencies,” he added. He recommended that an audio recorded message should be played if someone calls on the old numbers –– asking for an ambulance, for fire fighters, or for traffic police –– to inform the caller of the new unified number for emergencies. Some telephone operators who work in the civil defense department complain that some people misunderstand the purpose of these emergency numbers and they misuse these numbers and engage the telephone lines, which should be kept open for callers who have real life-threatening emergencies. “You would be surprised but some people call an emergency number to ask the results of a soccer game or to ask the location of a restaurant or mall or to report the loss of personal belongings in a shopping center. “Each of these calls squanders away the valuable time in which operators should otherwise be helping people who are in a true emergency. The media along with the civil defense department should launch awareness campaigns that target the general public ––– to educate them on which situations are considered true emergencies and what procedures to take when such emergencies arise,” said a telephone operator of an emergency line.
