City gets 300 911 butt dials per day

TORONTO, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Emergency responders in Toronto said they respond to about 300 calls to 911 each day from people who mistakenly called the number by sitting on their phones.

Judy Broomfield, 911 coordinator for the Toronto Police, said an "unscientific" study found an average of 300 calls were placed to 911 each day by people who sat on cellphones left in their back pockets, the Toronto Star reported Tuesday.

Broomfield said the butt calls account for about 10 percent of all emergency calls in the city.

She said the calls take up resources and tie up operators who sometimes spend several minutes attempting to determine whether an actual emergency is taking place.

"It sounds like the mall, maybe it's just street noise," Broomfield said.