HOUSTON — KHOU 11 is investigating why it took medics more than 15 minutes to arrive at Tuesday’s fatal crash between a Houston Police Department cruiser and cyclist.
According to the Houston Fire Department, in 2017 the average response time was 6.3 minutes, which is the latest data available.
After 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dwayne Foreman, 29, was hit on the 6900 block of North Wayside by an officer responding to a suicide in progress call.
The dispatch call shows Foreman was alive after the crash, but over the 15 minutes it took before medics were en route, Foreman had died.
A spokesperson at the Houston Police Department wouldn’t clarify what time the auto/ped call dropped, but the amount of time that lapsed is clear from the dispatch call. Therefore, we will layout the dispatch call starting at 0:00 minutes and end it at 15:03 minutes.
1.11 minutes after the call was dispatched, either an officer or dispatcher says, “Not conscious but he is breathing.”
4.04 minutes after the first call officers on scene begin asking where the Houston Fire Department’s medical help is.
“Do we still have HFD on the way?” an officer asks. “Everybody on northwest side, HFD is en route to you all. I am advising them to step it up,” a woman on dispatch responds.
At 5.37 minutes, an officer asks about the ambulance again.
“What’s the ETA on the ambulance?”
“I’ll send them a message and find out an update,” dispatch responds.
At 6.47 seconds, an officer urgently says, “I need an ETA on the (inaudible - woman screaming).”
Then at 7.22 minutes, a woman at dispatch provides a reason for the delay.
“They (HFD) sent us the update. I don’t know why, I updated the location to 6900 Wayside, they said they are at the old address, and I’m trying to get with them now.”
Dispatch is referring to the suicide in progress call that the officers were responding to when the crash occurred.
Chief West with HFD says they were already at the suicide in progress call when dispatch updated the address to North Wayside. HFD says it appears the Wayside address was added onto the suicide call incident instead of creating a new incident, even though they were two separate emergencies. Medics didn’t see the request for aid until they finished at the scene. They were on Rand Street, according to West. He added even if medics had seen the request, they would have to finish their current call before moving on.
It isn’t until 15.03 minutes had passed on the dispatch call that it’s confirmed HFD is on the way to North Wayside Drive.
HFD dispatched to Wayside at 9:18 p.m, arrived at 9:21, and Foreman was pronounced DOA at 9:22.
KHOU 11 reached out to the Houston Police Department and asked if its dispatch responded properly to the crash. A spokesperson said the whole incident is still under investigation but that the Houston Emergency Center (HEC) was responsible for the dispatch.
A spokesperson for HEC said they only handle 911 calls from the community and only handled the suicide in progress call which came in at 8:50 p.m. The spokesperson said they were never alerted to the crash and that HPD’s dispatch would have handled that.
KHOU 11 reached out to HPD Chief Art Acevedo who said he will be checking into it.
It is impossible to know if medics could have saved Foreman’s life. However, when seconds mattered, it appears he waited at least 8 minutes more than the average response time for help to arrive.
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