Very much in the category of 'you couldn't make this up' comes the news that two girls trapped in a storm drain in South Australia chose to update their Facebook status to get help – rather than ringing the emergency services.
The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service has expressed worry that the two girls – ages 12 and 10 – chose to turn to social networking rather than ringing triple zero, the Aussie equivalent of 999.
Apparently the two girls found themselves lost in a drain in a surburb of Adelaide.
Fortunate
Fireman Glenn Benham told ABC News it was fortunate that someone was online and able to call emergency services when he saw the update.
"It is a worry for us because it causes a delay on us being able to rescue the girls," he said.
"If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000, so the point being they could have called us directly and we could have got there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway."
Surely they should have know that a Twitter update would have been WAY more effective. That's a joke kids…
Your comments (8) Click to add a new comment
lemming77
September 18th 2009
8. These kids do realise they don't qualify for the Darwin awards if they survive, right?
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munkstar
September 9th 2009
7. So Stephen Fry's last Twitter will be ... uugggghhh?
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lovlid
September 9th 2009
6. Whatever happened in NSW is unfortunate, but lets face it, probably an extremely rare occurrence. The two airheads that "found themselves lost in a drain"??? should have called the emergency services first, then gone giggling to each other online to their equally airhead friends. "look at us, we're going to be famous"...jeez.
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peter_panzer
September 8th 2009
5. Then you have not seen the news in NSW it is a fact that at the time he got tost he made many calls that droped out each one was counted as a prank couse he could not give street address or the nearest cross street, it was a sad thing to happen but it did the nsw system at that stage did not have the GPS system to track and also bad operaters
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anewarmy28
September 8th 2009
4. annodyne, obviously you have been living under a rock since the inventions of cell phones. Atleast for the past ten years or longer cell phones have been equipped with gps tracking.
Don't be an idiot and make false claims about something you have no idea about..
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dawgma
September 8th 2009
3. annodyne you're comment is one of the stupidest comments I have ever read on the internet. Really, one of the dumbest things ever said.
From top to bottom your post demonstrates that you have absolutely no brians in your head. Go ahead and read your own comment again... Can't you see how stupid it was?
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annodyne
September 7th 2009
2. That dead boy was in the NSW Blue Mountains on a school hike only months ago. He was 14.
The fool quoted above "it was fortunate someone was online" clearly has no idea of how Facebook works. Those girls would have 400 friends and the odds of 10% of them being online at any given time is pretty good.
Also, Gleen above has obviously never actually dialled Emergency when actually having one. It is an enraging process and self-help is better every time. Australian emergency services of all kinds have a **** reputation, especially this year. just ****.
Smart girls. The media will be all over them now though..
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annodyne
September 7th 2009
1. NOT 'you couldnt make this up' at all.
Those girls know a boy lost in the mountains dialled 911 for help he was refused and he DIED because the emergency software ONLY allows the operator to progress through the process when an actual genuine complete street address is entered into it.
down a drain and on a mountain?
COMPUTER SAYS NO.
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