"You're not going to die".....

Newly released 911 audio reveals the final moments of an Arkansas newspaper delivery woman as she drowned in her car. Debra Stevens repeatedly asked for help during the call, but was criticized by the dispatcher for "freaking out."

Debra Stevens, 47, was following her usual newspaper delivery root for the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, Arkansas, last Saturday morning when a flash flood event overtook her SUV. At first, Stevens called a family member, but she called 911 once she realized she could not get out of her car.

In a desperate call lasting more than 20 minutes, an increasingly panicked Stevens pleas with the operator to send help. "I have an emergency — a severe emergency," Stevens said. "I can't get out and I'm scared to death, ma'am. Can you please help me?"

Stevens repeatedly tells the operator that she thinks she is going to die. She begins to cry and says she does not know how to swim.

"You're not going to die," dispatcher Donna Reneau said. "I don't know why you're freaking out. You freaking out is doing nothing but losing your oxygen in there. So calm down."

Stevens says she didn't realize she was driving into floodwaters and repeatedly apologized for the situation. "I'm scared. I'm sorry. I couldn't see the water when I came up on it. It just all of a sudden hit me," she said.

Poor woman! Cute dog. The poor thing probably has nowhere to go

Someone should start a Go-fund me page for the dog.

Flash floods are terrifying I remember being caught in a small one years ago when I was walking home . I was sunny twenty minutes before and what looked like normal rain was suddenly knee deep and filling the streets and I couldn't go around it.

Baby boomers aren't the only ones who aren't retiring.

I do get sick of silly people trying to drive through high water. That woman gave up before she even started swimming.

Did the operator send no help?

She did send help but Miss Debbie couldn't accurately describe her location. They found her 58 minutes after the call ended.

Stevens, later in the call, told Reneau that the water was up to her neck. Seemingly panicked, Stevens interrupted Reneau’s instructions, to which she told her to “shut up.”

All those papers she was out delivering likely floated away anyway. Should have stayed in bed.

Fire Dispatcher of the Year!

Wow, that's just terrible. Poor woman. Imagine being so afraid and in your last moments of life you have some asshole being harsh and uncaring towards you. The dispatcher is one nasty bitch.

I felt so sorry for that woman, she was frightened, pleading and begging to not die. She probably should have used better judgement but maybe her financial situation was such that she was afraid to miss a day's work and afraid she's lose her job if she did call in. What a horrible way to go.

Rest in peace my unfortunate friend.

May what has gone around come around for you, nasty little 911 operator.

R13 Her physical beauty matches the beauty of her speaking voice and the beauty of the tone she uses when she is treating people like garbage.

What a nasty pig.

Just your average female bully R13. Bet she was always left in charge of the classroom whenever the teacher stepped out and kept a list of who misbehaved. What a c...

So the article said the dispatcher had already resigned and took this call on her last shift. She clearly didn't give a shit.

I don't know. Maybe the dispatcher was acting like a coach and trying to get her to fight for her life, rather than continue to whine that she was going to die. Sometimes you need someone to slap you down to get that fighting spirit out.

God. How the deceased woman's family must feel about this dispatcher. Horrible. Just horrible.

I’m sure the Dispatcher was a DL denizen.

R7

Kids don't deliver papers anymore. Those jobs tend to be filled by adults who have trouble finding better work. They have to get up before dawn and work for very little pay. One reason I'm not sorry newspapers are dying is the holiday season plea from them to tip your delivery person because they're struggling so hard. Here's a hint: Pay Them More!

R22 That just makes this story that much sadder.

The dead lady looks like a gentle sort, I am sorry she had such a nasty end.

911 is suppose to save your life. This was a life threatening situation. This dispatcher and her supervisor should be fired. There are gold standards about 911 and how they should operate? So there is no excuse for this behavior from any employee, and really team.

It is so sick. The women was terrified and she was surround by hate, when she was trapped and dying, courtesy of 911 emergency services.

I thought the victim had a sweet look about her too R24

The dispatcher looks like she has a touch of Down Syndrome. She should be convicted for manslaughter.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[Quote]She should be convicted for manslaughter.

No she shouldn't.

I'd like to know the metric by which 'model employees' were graded. Was it getting off the phone with people quickly?

Ok, not manslaughter, then: Murder.

Congratulations Donna ! You will spend the rest of your life knowing that you were responsible for a woman's death because of your snark. Hopefully you will remember her voice every time you close your eyes to try to sleep. Don't buy a gun or pills, Donna.

r31, Donna is a sociopath and doesn't experience remorse or regret.

While I'm glad this woman isn't working as a dispatcher anymore, it's worth noting that EMTs getting to the car too late doesn't appear to be her fault. She called them out immediately. They had trouble finding the vehicle probably because it was still dark out.

[quote]She called them out immediately.

The article does not say that.

She's fat and white, who cares. Sorry, WAS.

R34, OP's link says the dispatcher called emergency services. So she did her job. She should not be held accountable for Debbie's death. However, that doesn't excuse her callousness. Debbie was scared for her life, and instead of being sympathetic, Donna admonishes her for driving into the water. Heartless.

She said there were people standing on a balcony watching. Then the car started drifting with the current and she was too panicked to describe the direction, also it was dark. If those spectators had called the cops, I bet they could've given a more accurate location. So sad.

She was a bitch, but did her actions affect the outcome? I think dispatchers are supposed to use a detached, no big deal persona. But this woman was cruel.

It was the dispatchers last day, perhaps she was rushing to get to her goodbye party?

911 did not send an emergency team to this women. This is why she died. The 911 tape proves it. 911 emergency services are completely responsible for this woman's death. Instead of mocking this terrified women, they could have used GPS systems to find her. This women called from her cell phone, it is easy. They just did not do it. The whole dispatch team needs to be fired for this.

You are suppose to use GPS asap.

Call all emergency teams and vehicles This women was in a car in water, so this was more vehicles need to be sent.

Talk to the person to calm them down and help them be safe or get to safety.

NONE of this was done. This is a clear manslaughter case. They did not do there job., at all. Mindbogglingly, the dispatch team decided to let her die and be cruel to her, while she was trapped and drowning.

r36, it doesn't say *when* she finally called them. The woman had probably already drowned by the time the psycho bothered to alert them to her peril.

911 dispatch did not conduct a GPS location. This is what you are suppose to do. Therefore, you know actually where the person is. It is easy to do.

If the dispatcher didn’t send anyone and didn’t determine her location, why was she telling the woman to stay in the phone so they could find her?

When the victim called into 911, didn't the bitch dispatcher automatically receive the victim's cell phone number, for her to give to EMT to find the victim using GPS?

That poor woman is already a marginalized person: to be a middle aged adult delivering newspapers at 4:00 in the morning. It's a dangerous and low paid job with zero benefits.

What an absolute fucking cunt. I hope this ruins her fucking life.

It is not hard to do GPS. The dispatch team just did not do it. This was purposeful, as GPS location is one of the things you are suppose to do. You stay on the phone will someone so you can give emergency instructions to them, when necessary.

Another way to put this is this dispatch team went out of their way not to do their jobs. GPS is easy and the core part of the job.

When you call 911, you are actually enabling the GPS system that locates your exact location. Dispatch has to go out of there way not too save your GPS location that is saved for all emergency teams. This is what this 911 dispatch cunt did. She went out of her way, not to send the emergency team to her to save her life. She also lean through the phone call that it was a flash flood and the women cannot swim. So this cunt knew this women was going to die.

I wonder how many other people she killed while being a 'model employee'.

That fat cunt reminds me of my last boss.

That model employee and the system is going to have a huge lawsuit. Hope they have cash.

This bitch and the rest of the 911 dispatcher team probably have no remorse about KILLING a women who needed emergency services ASAP. They probably do this all the time. FUCK THEM! The city and state has to pay up. Use gold standard procedures to save lives. Treat people with dignity. Hire licensed and high quality people.

[quote]This dispatcher and her supervisor should be fired.

Fired? If I were the deceased's family member, I'd find that dispatcher and drown her in a trough of pig shit. I'd let her up occasionally so I could mock her while she begged for her life. Heinous cunt.

If there's any justice she needs to drown in a vat of lard. Though looking at her she'd get on voluntarily.

The dispatcher looks FAS-adjacent

Seems they found the car pretty quickly but needed a boat to get to it. That's how bad the water was.

R57 Can't they rope up and swim to the car?

Like a heifer stuck in the creek?

I want to adopt that dog. They better not send it to a shelter

Dispatcher looks like a thumb.

Dispatcher looks like a slug.

A horrible way to die, though I still cannot fathom how people do not learn to swim. It's a necessary skill to have at least a basic handle on.

So, is the cancel culture mob going to go after someone who actually deserves it this time? Because this cunt should be unemployable after this, afraid to leave her house, shunned like Casey Anthony.

What makes this somehow even worse is was how polite and docile the woman was to the dispatcher. She REPEATEDLY apologized for being scared. And when the dispatcher told her, "This will teach you next time don’t drive in the water,” the poor woman replied, “I couldn’t see it, mam. I’m sorry, or I wouldn’t have."

The woman knew she was dying...she should have realized that 911 could not help her, she needed to make her own plan. We all may get to that point in our lives, learn to think for yourself.

Nobody exoects to fucking die like that R67.

[quote] What is FAS?

Mama called it a “cons quince”.

Have we finally reached the new low point in the sad final days of the English language that it’s an acceptable alternate spelling to use “womEn” (plural) to mean “womAn” (singular)?

Yeah, that's the problem with our civilization today, not global warming and the rise of fascism, but what [r70] says.

How sad. This story is also another example of why people are delusional thinking that praying to a “god” will help them. This woman was praying and she ended up dying.

When will people get a clue?

The woman called 911. She called for emergency assistance. This Dispatch Team did not help her. What they did purposely lead to this woman dying.

That fat cunt dispatcher should be sued by the deceased woman’s family for her disgusting behavior.

[quote] When will people get a clue?

She didn’t. She died.

She should be sued for mentally torturing a dying woman

Then someone needs to find this fucking bitch and kick her repeatedly in her cunt until their foots is to swollen to keep kicking

[quote]She didn’t. She died.

I said “people” not “she”.

[quote] I said “people” not “she”.

She’s not a person because she’s fat? Typical DL.

I bet the police department was happy she quit, problem took care of itself.

r78 types 'model employee'

It's not actually a crime to psychologically torture anyone, right? Bones have to broken?

r81 if you tell someone to kill themselves and they do it you could be in trouble

I’m an atheist, but under those circumstances, I would have prayed with that woman and try to comfort her in her last minutes of life.

exhibit A, charles Mason.

For goodness sake, the action log shows the operator did the basics of the job by calling the response unit fairly quickly and trying to ascertain the victim's location. (She asked her to honk her horn etc)

If anyone would read, the emergency services tried to get to the car with ropes etc but the water was too dangerous. They had to wait for a boat.

Operator could have been much more calming and it is shameful how harsh she was, but maybe she was sure the rescuers would have no problems finding and saving the lady? Plus she was inundated with other calls as well.

Why wait so long for the boat request from the responders? The request should of gone out at the moment of the call. The woman was saying the water was up to her SUV's windows. The dispatcher is not multitasking 911 calls: she has each emergency until completion. This time, completion a death for the victim. Failure on the dispatcher, and responders.

I can't stop staring at the cunt dispatcher's non-existing chin. She's got a Matthew Perry thing going on down there.

Apparently they had a lot of calls and the dispatcher WAS multitasking. I have the impression the dispatcher didn’t do enough to convey the severity of the situation to the emergency responders, but that’s a subjective call. She’s awful, but I haven’t seen anything that clearly states the dispatcher’s shitty attitude influenced the outcome. I’m not certain she didn’t, but I think people are jumping to conclusions.

The worst thing about this? The dispatcher is being a classic bully, picking on the hapless, fearful fuck up. EVEN THOUGH THATS 90% OF WHAT EMERGENCY WORKERS DEAL WITH. That’s the core of her job. Even competent people aren’t at their best when faced with an unexpected emergency. But if someone had called in calm and collected they probably would have been given even lower priority by this bitch.

Dispatch did not send the victims GPA location to the all emergency vehicles, which is the core part of her job. Instead of doing her job to save lives, she toyed with a terrified woman.

I’ve heard so many 911 calls where the cunt operator goes “Ma’am, MA’AM you need to calm down! I can’t help you if you don’t calm down” and the caller is actually calm and speaking clearly and giving the right information.

I think they get a sadistic pleasure from exerting their power over people in distress who are absolutely dependent on them. Sometimes these people get jobs at the DMV or become school principals or nurses. Power trips.

Not saying all of them are. But I’ve come across more than a few and if you know what’s good for you, you do what they want.

Fuck this FAS cunt. No reason to tell someone with the water riding to their neck- “shut up”. I hope she gets doxxed. The gall. As she was walking out in the job. Fuck HER.

Saddest story ever. I hope someone sues. And sues this woman personally but she probably has malpractice through her work. Fuck her.

I've known some 911 dispatchers and have listened to lots of 911 recordings.

I'm not making excuses for this particular dispatcher, but a lot of 911 callers are plain rude and obnoxious. Part of the problem is that the callers don't believe / realize that the dispatcher has already notified police/fire to respond and is now trying to get further information from the caller.

I've heard recordings of dispatchers being really kind to 911 callers, calling them "Hon," talking them down, etc.

Sweet little doggie is likely heart-broken and confused.

R85 is obtuse cunt of the year.

Yes, R93, I’m so terribly sorry for being unpleasant to the 911 operator! Next time I’ll be sure to make small talk and invite her to tea before politely requesting some assistance!

Sincerely,

Hysterical, frantic victim about to DIE

Sow dispatcher's Pinterest:

Keto recipes board: zero pins

Endomorph diet plan board: one pin

Yummy in the Tummy board: 2015 pins

This neckless ham is eating herself into a slow and painful death. She might get someone just like herself as a dispatcher when she calls 911 and her life is on the line. "lol calm down fatty, your heart's kept going this long, it'll last a while longer. Let me get some other calls and some doughnuts while I put up with your whiny cries and prayers."

I was going to give the operator the benefit of the doubt, but she really does sound like a cunt. Any update on the dog?

R93, no doubt. I’ve heard some very compassionate operators. And I’ve heard some hysterical callers who were unintelligible.

My point is that there are some scary power-tripping bitches who have to establish their own dominance before they’ll help. You’d better obey them or you don’t get help. I don’t know how you screen for that, but people in literal life-or-death situations shouldn’t have to deal with that kind of psycho.

The dispatcher should have at least told her when the water gets really high in the car (almost to the roof) she'd be able to open the door and get out. She'd have to stay calm and hold her breath though. She still might have drowned but she could have tried it.

I will give the dispatcher the benefit of the doubt that shes not completely aware of the gravity of the situation. But still her rhetorics should have been calming and reassuring. The victim seems so polite and even apologetic. RIP. The dispatcher is clearly victim-blaming. She should be fired.

I will give the dispatcher the benefit of the doubt that shes not completely aware of the gravity of the situation. But still her rhetorics should have been calming and reassuring. The victim seems so polite and even apologetic. RIP. The dispatcher is clearly victim-blaming. She should be fired.

[quote]Operator could have been much more calming and it is shameful how harsh she was, but maybe she was sure the rescuers would have no problems finding and saving the lady? Plus she was inundated with other calls as well.

Right. Let’s see how you would react if your loved one called 911 and received that kind of bullshit in her LAST MOMENTS. There is no excuse here.

JESUS, contrarians are the worst.

Oh btw, This cunt has deleted all of her social media. I don't have a problem with Internet lynching, but I've seen her home address several times and that's crossing a line that I'm not comfortable with.

She should be doxxed to hell and back.

[quote]I don’t know how you screen for that, but people in literal life-or-death situations shouldn’t have to deal with that kind of psycho.

It would be easy, actually, to screen for bullies, or power-tripping sociopaths.

They have secret shoppers for retail. The ABC is always dining/ordering drinks in restaurants to catch waiters who fail to ask for ID of potentially underaged drinkers.

Quality control/Psych evaluators can call-in with fabricated emergencies, and the dispatch signals can be rerouted instead of actually alerting emergency services.

Monitor this shit on a monthly - hell, weekly basis if need be. I would imagine there’s a high burn-out rate for a high pressure job like 911 operator.

Bring in the 911 operator and play the call back with evaluators present to go over the call moment by moment.

I know actors that are brought into medical centers to present symptoms for residents to practice on. It’s a paid gig.

There can absolutely be a system in place to weed out the ineffectual and the unprofessional.

r108, same thing should be done with cops.

[quote]I will give the dispatcher the benefit of the doubt that shes not completely aware of the gravity of the situation.

She's a 911 dispatcher. A person called her in distress. The gravity of the situation was made patently clear to her by the woman who drowned who told her she feared for her life. There is really no excuse for her actions. She's a psychopath.

There are too many people like this nowadays; something is seriously wrong with our society. It's because people like you always make excuses for them. Stop doing that. She acted horribly to a person who was in grave danger and practically begging for their life. There is absolutely no justification for that.

[quote]Operator could have been much more calming and it is shameful how harsh she was, but [bold]maybe she was sure the rescuers would have no problems finding and saving the lady?[/bold] Plus she was inundated with other calls as well.

Did you fucking miss the part where THE WOMAN DROWNED??? So "maybe" she shouldn't have been so "sure," since she's a 911 dispatcher and not a psychic, and the woman was desperately trying to convey the urgency of the situation while the dispatcher callously belittled her, ridiculed her fears, and told her to "calm down." And if she was "inundated with other calls," why would she be so smug and sure that the rescuers would get to this woman in time? Really, nothing you wrote makes sense.

The dispatch dame "was inundated," r85?

Nice choice of words there, Bunky.

I applied for a dispatcher position but didn't go to the second interview because fortunately, I came to my senses and realized that since I HATE people, I really don't have the temperament to be taking back to back, life or death calls from panicked people.

[quote] It's not actually a crime to psychologically torture anyone, right? Bones have to broken?

Who said it was a crime? You should learn to read. You can sue someone for mental anguish/torture