02/25/2009 - Sheriff: Daniels politicized deaths (Indianapolis Star)

Sheriff: Daniels politicized deaths
Carter defends Hamilton County response to '07 crash

By Robert Annis
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NOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- Gov. Mitch Daniels has raised the ire of the Hamilton County sheriff by citing a tragic traffic accident in Carmel as an example of inefficiency in government.

While visiting a dispatch center in Logansport that merged two older facilities, an example Daniels used to highlight his own calls for efficiency in government, he said the drowning deaths of a Carmel family in 2007 resulted from delays caused by misdirected 911 calls.

Sheriff Doug Carter said that was incorrect and described the references made by fellow Republican Daniels as politicizing a family's deaths.

Batul Abbas, 47, and her three daughters, Shazreh, 18; Shaail, 14; and Azmeh, 8; died Dec. 16, 2007, after their minivan slid off an icy road into a retention pond at 141st Street and Towne Road. Batul Abbas called 911 as her vehicle filled with freezing water.

According to the Pharos-Tribune of Logansport, Daniels told the family's story Feb. 17 at the Cass County Emergency Dispatch Center, a merger of the Logansport and Cass County call centers that was done to save money and improve response time.

Daniels said rescue workers in Hamilton County weren't dispatched to the scene in time because of communication issues among the county's various call centers. One center dispatches sheriff's deputies, police and fire in the county's small communities and Fishers police and fire; a second center dispatches police and fire in Noblesville and Westfield; and a third dispatches police and fire in Carmel.

Referring to the crash response, Daniels said such an incident "would never happen here (in Cass County)."

At a hastily called news conference Tuesday, Carter said the governor was politicizing the deaths, saying no calls were transferred and there were absolutely no dispatching delays on the night of the accident.

"There was less than 27 seconds from the first call to units being dispatched to the scene," Carter said. "In a little over five minutes from the initial call, Carmel firefighters (arrived on the scene). The only way there could have been a positive outcome would have been to have a dive team at the edge of the cornfield, ready to go."

Although Hamilton County and Noblesville are in the process of merging their dispatch services, Carter said Carmel will continue to operate its own call center to better ensure at least one call center is operating during a catastrophe.

Carter said Daniels likely received the misinformation from an Indiana Chamber of Commerce document, provided in July, that supported government consolidation efforts and alleged the Abbases died because communication between county rescue agencies wasn't properly coordinated.

Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber, said his organization distributed a package of policy opinions, including one based on work by a syndicated Indiana political columnist. "We made no original conclusions or statements of our own," Brinegar said, adding that the chamber is no longer using the accident as an example.

Two months after that package was issued, Carter and every Hamilton County police and fire chief sent a letter to Daniels and Jill Long Thompson, Daniels' opponent in the November election, saying the conclusions about the accident were "both inaccurate and inappropriate" and that a consolidated dispatch center wouldn't have saved the Abbases.

Carter said he never received a response to the letter and the governor's office never contacted him or any other Hamilton County official to discuss the accident.

Daniels' spokeswoman, Jane Jankowski, said Tuesday afternoon that the governor was using an example that had been reported in the media to illustrate that public safety systems across the state need changes.

When asked whether Daniels would clarify his comments or apologize to rescue workers who felt insulted by his remarks, she said, "The governor has never been critical of first responders and applauds their efforts."