April 12, 2017 11.03 am This story is over 83 months old

Child’s fatal crash hoax 999 call that cost the public almost £2,500

Parents in Lincoln are being asked to warn their children about the dangers of hoax 999 calls after a boy rang emergency services claiming that a young girl had been run over and killed. The cost of responding to the call on Friday was almost £2,500 and one ambulance was diverted from a real emergency…
Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Parents in Lincoln are being asked to warn their children about the dangers of hoax 999 calls after a boy rang emergency services claiming that a young girl had been run over and killed.

The cost of responding to the call on Friday was almost £2,500 and one ambulance was diverted from a real emergency in order to attend.

The air ambulance, a paramedic in a fast response vehicle and two crewed ambulances rushed into action after receiving the boy’s request for help but when they arrived at the scene they found it empty.

In a video released by EMAS, actors recreate the call using the real transcript.

One of the ambulances had been diverted from a real callout with a person experiencing chest pains.

Fortunately there was another ambulance on hand to attend.

Each callout of the air ambulance costs the service around £1,700 and each ambulance callout around £255.

This one prank call cost the service £2,465.

It costs £1700 to deploy the air ambulance.

Simon Tomlinson, general manager for EMAS’ Emergency Operations Centres, said: “Hoax calls can put people’s lives in danger by diverting resources away from genuine emergencies and can delay responses attending serious or life threatening emergency calls.

“They also place additional strain on emergency services at a time when the Trust is dealing with a rising number of 999 calls.”

“Think – your life, or the life of someone you care about, could be put at risk by making a hoax call.”

On Monday the service received a further three hoax calls from children. Photo: The Lincolnite

Ewan Hinde, the emergency call handler who took the hoax call, explained that it was only his third day in the job and that it was very disheartening to hear people misusing the service.

He said: “It’s a complete misuse of the service we provide and it’s very disheartening and upsetting.”

Police have said they are looking into the incident, and take hoax calls very seriously.