By Tracy Overstreet
A frantic woman called 911. Her baby was having a seizure.
Dispatchers at the Grand Island/Hall County Emergency Management Center struggled to understand the woman.
She wasn’t speaking English, nor was she speaking Spanish, which could have been translated by the 911 center’s bilingual dispatcher.
The dispatcher called the center’s contracted translator, Language Line.
The nationwide company offers over-the-phone translation 24/7 for 170 languages.
Grand Island/Hall County Emergency Management Director Jon Rosenlund said the 911 center has used the service for years to speak effectively and efficiently with Grand Island’s diverse population. Language Line provides translation both directions once patched into the call by the Grand Island dispatcher.
Grand Island’s 911 center has effectively handled emergency calls in Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Somali, Somali Arabic and many other languages through the help of Language Line.
“Anywhere from 25 to 40 times a month — almost daily — we’re utilizing that Language Line,” Rosenlund said. “We use it mainly to make sure the dispatcher first knows where the incident is taking place and what they need.”
Those 25 to 40 calls, which at a $1.14-a-minute fee for translation costs the city about $250 a month, are just a fraction of the foreign-language calls the 911 center receives, Rosenlund said.
Dispatchers first ask the phone to be passed to an English-speaking person on scene, if possible, or will provide direct translation if a call comes in Spanish and the center’s Spanish-speaking dispatcher is on duty.
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