Nine-Eleven emergency radio surge may have cut off half of transmissions
Tuesday,December2,2003,5:37 PM
Washington-AP -- Investigators looking into the effectiveness of emergency radios on Nine-Eleven say one problem was too many people trying to talk at once. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is examining the evacuation procedures at the World Trade Center. It says a rush of radio transmissions by emergency workers at the towers may have cut off as many as half of the calls.
Communications breakdowns are blamed for slowing the evacuations of workers and rescuers, but most complaints have centered around poorly-designed equipment or spotty reception in the buildings.
The federal government has pushed local authorities to find ways to allow different emergency responders to talk effectively to each other.
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