Tasmania Police Arrived Two Hours After First Emergency Call
In Tasmania, police arrived at the scene two hours after the first emergency call about a man who had disappeared in the water, ABC News Australia reports. During that time, 74-year-old David Mason, who was carried by the current into Bass Strait, was rescued by two young fishermen.
The incident occurred on January 7 in Ulverstone, in north-western Tasmania. Mason launched his boat at about 5:30, but did not secure it properly to the pier. While he was parking his car with a trailer, the boat began drifting with the current toward the mouth of the Leven River. The man took off his clothes, entered the water and tried to swim to the vessel.
The first call did not trigger a response
A person fishing on the pier called the Triple Zero emergency number at 5:40. English was not their native language, so the operator had difficulty understanding the circumstances, although the caller's location was established in about a minute. According to a police representative, the caller said there was no immediate danger to the person, after which the call was ended without activating an emergency response.
At about 6:10, fisherman Kerry Porter learned about the drifting boat and, together with the first caller, returned the empty vessel, whose engine was still running. At approximately 6:30, they arrived at the pier. Porter did not see the boat owner either in the water or on shore and called Triple Zero three times over the following half hour.
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The man was found by young fishermen
During one of the calls, Porter reported that the man had removed his clothes and swum after the boat. At about 7:12, he was told that police officers were being dispatched to the scene. At 7:24, the service received an ambulance call from Alec Newton and Callum Hodge, young fishermen who found Mason in the water beyond the river mouth. According to them, the man appeared to show almost no signs of life and was on the verge of losing consciousness.
An ambulance arrived shortly after the fishermen returned to the pier, while the Triple Zero log recorded the first police officers at the scene at 7:40 — two hours after the first call. Tasmania Police acknowledged that, despite communication difficulties during the first call, officers should have arrived to independently check the circumstances. The agency said it had given recommendations to the operator and provided additional training for the radio dispatch unit.
Mason said that after about an hour in the water, he thought he would die and later lost consciousness. After being rescued, he went out on the water in a boat again, but now does not do so alone and chooses only favorable weather.
