Older Phone Technology Complicated Search for Ky. Woman
Jan. 05--Old phone technology combined with unusual circumstances in a Friday night traffic accident caused rescue crews to comb numerous county roads east of Owensboro in search of motorist who couldn't be located by her cellphone.
The motorist, Dorothy N. Krahwinkle, 78, left the road and went down an embankment shortly before 6 p.m. Friday in the 6200 block of Millers Mill Road. Krahwinkle's vehicle overturned between a house and a retaining wall, which blocked its view from the roadway. Krahwinkle was rescued about three hours later after medical personnel, in a helicopter dispatched from Muhlenberg County to assist in the search, spotted her car.
Krahwinkle had to be extricated from the vehicle.
Krahwinkle complained of pain and was taken to Owensboro Health Regional Hospital for treatment.
Although Krahwinkle had a cellphone, it was an older model that didn't have global positioning, said Paul Nave, director of Owensboro-Daviess County 911 dispatch. Krahwinkle was conscious and able to talk to dispatchers, but did not know her location.
The phone was "pinged" by the phone service provider, but the ping could only give dispatchers a "polygon," showing the general location of the phone, Nave said.
"We were 1.89 miles from the center of the polygon to her location," Nave said Monday.
"The caller had an older flip telephone that wasn't compatible to give us accurate information" using GPS, Nave said. "... She had an older phone, she was inside the vehicle and couldn't get out" and between the wall and house, he said.
"All of those variables were stacked against us," Nave said.
Because there are fewer cellular towers in the county than in the city, there where fewer towers for the phone company to use to triangulate the phone's location, so the location data from the "ping" was limited, he said.
Because Krahwinkle was talking to dispatchers, she was able to report when she saw the helicopter fly overhead. The helicopter was directed to double-back and the crew spotted the vehicle. At that point, Krahwinkle had been trapped in the car for more than two and a half hours.
"She made one of the wisest decisions, in that she charged her phone fully before she left the house," Nave said.
Modern phones with GPS would be more likely to provide a better location in a similar situation, because the phone would be able to send a GPS signal through the windshield or side window, Nave said.
"Some (phone service) carriers do triangulation, but most have moved away from that and gone to GPS," Nave said.
The Smart911 system, which is voluntary, allows people to provide their cell phone numbers to 911 dispatch. If a person who has registered for the system calls 911, the system can send out a GPS signal to locate the caller's cell phone, Nave said. The system can be used to track people's phones, but is only activated when a person signed up for the service calls 911, he said.
"It's not Big Brother looking after you," Nave said.
James Mayse, (270) 691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse
Copyright 2016 - Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
