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As the Smart911 service reaches its one-year mark in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, officials involved with both entities say they have seen the positive effects in many ways.
Some are preventative measures for peace of mind.
Others, in actual live-saving instances.
Smart911 is a free online profile in which residents may upload as much or as little personal information as they would like – information 911 operators and responders can access instantaneously in the event of an emergency. It is funded by the small emergency surcharge on everyone’s phone bill.
“What if you can’t tell 911 who you are or where you are if you have a blocked airway due to allergies or suffering from heart attack?” Lafourche 991 center telecommunicator Gary Foret asked.
This issue is exacerbated due to the influx of cell phones into today’s society. In 2013, 85.2 percent of Laforuche’s emergency calls and 82.1 of Terrebonne’s came via a cell phone. When a call is received from a landline, the operator knows exactly where the call came from. However with cell phones that are, of course, portable by nature, just receiving a call and corresponding phone number does little to target the location of the caller if the caller is unable to speak.
Technology can track down the source of the cell phone call to a radius of roughly 1,000 to 2,000 feet, according to Foret, but when minutes and seconds could literally be the difference between life and death, that sometimes isn’t good enough. In fact, a response 30 seconds quicker to a heart attack increases survivability by 20 percent.
That’s where Smart911 comes in. If an emergency happens at a place frequented by someone, whether it be a home, workplace, school or even a usual place of leisure, that person can upload directions and even maps to those places.
“If you have a Smart 911 profile, we have your exact residence and address so if you’re dialing from your house or your apartment we have your exact address in your profile because you set it up in your profile,” Foret explained. “You can put maps of where you normally work at. If you ping next to that address we’re going to assume you’re at that address.”
Lafourche 911 telecommunicator Belinda Matherne has a profile, along with every other employee at the center. Matherne and her husband own 40 acres of property in Valentine and often spend lots of time working in the back of it, far from the main highway. Her Smart911 profile gives her a sense of security.
“What if I have an accident back there, and I get hurt on my tractor or something, and I call over here, and I can’t speak to them to tell them how to get back there? On my Smart911, I have a little square, and in there I went ahead and I gave them directions on how to get back there, because there’s a wooden bridge. You can get on it by ATV. You can get on it by walking but you can’t use a vehicle,” she said.
This vital piece of information for first responders could not only save Matherne or her husband’s life, but it can also save a first responder vehicle from driving into the ditch.
And the information Smart911 participants can upload isn’t limited to tips on where they may be. Medical information such as allergies are suggested as well as emergency contacts, pictures in the case of missing persons, diagrams of frequented building floor plans, PDFs of anything pertinent and even vehicle information is encouraged to be included.
“Take a picture of the caddy corner of your vehicle where you can see the side profile and the license plate,” Foret suggested. “I don’t remember my license plate number. I’m sure you don’t, but if that vehicle gets stolen, where you’re going to find that information? You’ve got it in your profile.”
All profile information is confidential and is only referenced by operators or first responders if needed.
“It’s as secure as banking online. Anything and everything is hackable, I’m sure, but there aren’t more secure sites,” Foret said.
Since the service was instituted in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes about one year ago around Thanksgiving 2013, Lafourche’s 911 Center has not had to use any Smart911 profile information to save a life due to the caller being unable to speak. In Terrebonne, however, there have been “several” cases of this, according to Terrebonne 911 Director Mark Boudreaux.
“We’ve used the information provided from the profiles in a positive way,” Boudreaux said. “They have had positive impacts, especially when it came to some medical calls that we have received. One of them particularly was a person who was diabetic and the information was able to help. The individual was heading into a coma, and we were able to use the data in the profile to alert medical [personnel].”
Do a quick Google search, and you’ll find countless more instances of Smart911 saving someone’s life somewhere in America.
However, only about one to three of the roughly 150 to 200 calls Lafourche receives a day come from someone who has signed up for Smart911. That’s why both parishes are doing everything they can to promote the program.
“We’re promoting public education as much as we can, anything from going to fairs and handing out sheets and going to the council on aging facilities and set up laptops to help them,” Boudreaux said.
Both Foret and Boudreaux make presentations to groups and organizations promoting the service. Call Foret at (985) 637-0103 to schedule an event in Lafourche Parish and Boudreaux at (985) 580-0911 for Terrebonne Parish.
Lafourche and Terrebonne join only Tangipahoa and Calcasieu as parish agencies in Louisiana that currently implement Smart911. But even if a family member or friend doesn’t live in those areas, they are still encouraged to sign up. If an incident happens when they pass through a Smart911 area nationwide, the service could save their lives.
Visit www.Smart911.com to create a free profile.
Lafourche 911 Telecommunicator Belinda Matherne receives an emergency call from someone in Mathews who did not have a Smart911 profile. Only about one to three of roughly 150-200 calls per day to Lafourche 911 have signed up for the free and confidential profile.
