Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 28/01) - Yellowknife needs a 911 service, as well as extended cellular phone service along the Ingraham Trail.

Chief coroner Percy Kinney made both recommendations in the report he filed recently on the death of Freda Hope.

The coroner and the fire department erected signs on Prosperous Lake after Freda Hope's death

The 31-year-old woman died after her snowmobile crashed through the ice on Prosperous Lake last December.

Kinney said 911 service would not be overly expensive -- "it will just take political will."

With the service in place, Kinney said, the door will open to upgrades, such as trained 911 dispatchers, in the future.

His report, released on Sept. 21, detailed how a motorist, trying to take another member of Hope's party to hospital, tried to dial 911 but could not get through on his way to the city.

The driver of the vehicle was a resident of Yellowknife who had assumed the service was in place.

Hope was snowmobiling with her common-law husband. She struggled out of the frigid water and walked nearly a kilometre toward some cabins. When emergency workers found her the next day she was just outside the shelters, frozen.

Before Hope's machine went through, her partner, who was travelling some distance ahead of her, crashed into a rock and suffered serious injuries.

Another snowmobiler found him, alerted the man driving the truck and loaded him in it.

"Garbled" communication with emergency workers appears to have directed them to the wrong scene.

Kinney said a 911 system would not have helped in this case but it may be a vital system for future emergencies.

Deputy fire chief Mike Lowing agreed. He said the issue has been discussed for four or five years now.

"It is important to understand 911 does not speed up response," he said. "(But) 95 per cent of Alberta has 911 response and that includes some very small towns. A lot of people are moving up here thinking there is 911 service."

Memorizing the three emergency numbers for police, fire and ambulance is easier that remembering three separate numbers. Lowing said in panic situations and incidents involving the elderly and children, that would be an asset.

This March the fire department's emergency number was published incorrectly in the NorthwesTel telephone directory as the City of Yellowknife's administration number.

"That has caused us non-stop problems," Lowing said.

Kinney's second recommendation could prove more difficult to implement.

"The expanded cell phone service is difficult to deal with because (NorthwesTel Mobility Inc.) is a private business," Kinney said. "They only do things that make good business sense."

Kinney said the amount of people living on the Ingraham Trail may justify setting up a cell-phone antenna tower in the area.

The search for Hope was postponed that night when it was felt she could not have survived. The next day her machine was found, as well as articles of clothing near the scene.

Her frozen gloves were located further away so emergency workers were clued into the fact that she had surfaced. Wind had swept away her tracks on the snow-covered ice.

"Here is a woman who fell into the ice and walked half a mile," Kinney said, explaining Hope's struggle. "It was really cold and I can't fathom walking that far soaking wet.

"If she would have walked the other way she would have been at the highway in a few minutes. That's why I wanted signs out there."

As well as placing signs in the area of the narrows himself last season, Kinney also recommended continuous upgrading of a safety Web site and a coast guard safety campaign.