A 911 operator told a teenage girl to “stop whining” just after her father was fatally struck by a car as he tried to change a flat tire along the Baltimore Washington Parkway in Maryland last weekend.
According to NBC4, Rick Warrick, 38, and his fiancee were taking Warrick’s two teenagers to Dave & Buster’s at the Arundel Mills mall Sunday night when their tire went flat on the BW Parkway in Anne Arundel County.
After pulling to the shoulder, Warrick had just gotten the doughnut onto the car and was tightening the lugs when they were both struck by a car that did not stop.
Warrick’s fiancee, 28-year-old Julia Pearce, reportedly suffered two broken legs, a broken pelvis and a fractured skull. She tried to encourage Warrick to keep breathing, but he died at the scene.
“Can y’all please hurry up!” the teen asks.
“Ma’am, stop yelling, I need a location,” the operator said. The girl then tells him they’re situated along I-295.
“OK, 295, that’s good. We’re located now on a highway. Now that’s a pretty long road,” he says.
The teen then says two people were struck.
“Yes, they both…”
“OK, let’s stop whining. OK, let’s stop whining. It’s hard to understand you… two people were struck, correct?” the operator said.
When the teen describes that her father and his fiancee are motionless and lying on the ground, the operator asks to talk to someone else.
“Is there someone else there I can talk to, because it’s so hard…”
The teen then explains the only other conscious person is her young brother.
The dispatcher was removed from his position and reassigned, pending an investigation into the matter. Watch NBC4’s report (including the audio of the call) below:
Russ Davies with the Anne Arundel County Fire Department admitted it was a poor choice of words and the operator has been placed “in a position where he won’t have citizen contact” as the investigation continues.