Malaysian Singer Called 999 After Seeing A Bad Car Accident And No One Picked Up
The accident took place in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 14 November.
By Tamara Jayne — 16 Nov 2018, 01:49 PM
A young woman recently shared about how she tried calling 999 after seeing a bad car accident in Petaling Jaya but no one picked up her call
On Wednesday, 14 November, Malaysian singer Talitha Tan noticed a car overturned and crashed into the side of the road before the Damansara toll.
"Guys, please drive safe. Cause last night I came across this car that under-steered and crashed. The guy was fine. But there I was, not knowing who to call. 911? 999? HAHA. No It's 112!" she wrote.
"I don't think Malaysians were actually taught what to do during an emergency. Like we've only learnt about '911' in movies you know?"
When she finally managed to reach the 112 hotline, someone responded by taking down her contact details and the exact location of the accident but nothing happened
She wrote that he had asked for the location of the accident not once or twice, but five times.
"Half an hour later, I get a call from the police asking if I called the police," Tan added.
When the police asked her where she was, Tan replied that she had gone home assuming that they had already went to help the man.
But, the police then asked her, "Oh so semua dah ok?" (Oh, so all good then?).
Tan further revealed that she had tried calling the emergency number "999" but no one had picked up
Since her post went up, several netizens began to relay their own experiences of calling the emergency hotline
A person, who preferred to not be named, revealed that she once called 999 when her kitchen caught fire.
"[They] told me to calm down and [took] my location [down] and hung up."
The person had to eventually put out the fire herself because the bomba never showed up or returned her call.
Another netizen recalled a time when her father had collapsed and she contacted 999
The ambulance told her family that they could not find their house and asked if they [the family] could transport her dad to their location instead, which was a few kilometres away.
"My mom gave up on the ambulance, called a close friend, and they came to help move my dad using bed sheets to the car and sent him to the hospital," she wrote.
She added that the ambulance later told told them off for "keeping them waiting".
According to Malaysian Emergency Response Services (MERS), the 112 emergency hotline number can only be dialled from mobile phones
In 2015, The Star reported the MERS 999 project director Rozinah Anas as saying that 112 was an alternative contact that can only be dialled from a mobile phone.
She added that all 112 calls would be redirected to the 999 Response Centres. However, both numbers will not work on mobile phones without an active SIM card.
For future reference, these are the current emergency hotline numbers in Malaysia:
999 - This emergency hotline will connect you with the police, Fire and Rescue Department, ambulance services, Health Ministry, Civil Defence Department, and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
112 - This emergency hotline can only be dialled using mobile phones and will redirect your call to 999. It can be used to contact police, fire brigade, and ambulance services.