Dallas Officials Answer Crash Response Questions

Feb. 26, 2008
Fire officials said the response time is well in keeping with the national average.

DALLAS --

Dallas Fire and Rescue said Monday its response to a deadly motorcycle crash that killed a police officer was not as fast as it could have been.

Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada was killed while escorting Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to a campaign rally on Friday.

The 911 call came in at 9:19 a.m. At 9:21 a.m., dispatchers confirmed that an officer was down on the Houston Street Viaduct. However, the computer-aided dispatch system needed an address, not just a location, leading to a five-minute delay before an ambulance was sent to the scene.

Fire officials said the response time is well in keeping with the national average.

"I think the public can have confidence that the CAD is working," Fire Chief Eddie Burns said. "It's working as it's designed to do."

Burns said doctors told him the time it took to dispatch a crew would not have saved Lozada's life.

But fire officials said they will take lessons from Friday's crash make the CAD system better.

"However, we're always trying to improve the system," Burns said. "And the city manager's officer is committed to perfecting the system, and that's what we're trying to."

Earlier this month, Dallas firefighters said the city's 6-month-old CAD system was still filled with bugs.

Officials talked about the delay between the call from Dallas police to the time the ambulance was sent to the scene at a meeting on Monday.

The meeting was scheduled before Friday's crash.

Lozadas funeral is at 11 a.m. Friday at the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. A public visitation is set for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Restland Funeral Home in Dallas.

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