Woman drowns after begging 911 for help, transcript reveals dispatcher mocks her

FORT SMITH, Ark. — An Arkansas woman delivering newspapers died last Saturday when her car was swept away by floodwaters.

Debbie Stevens, 47, spent the last moments of her life on the phone with a 911 operator begging for help, but the dispatcher only gave her mockery and contempt, revealed a recording of the call.

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The Fort Smith Police Department released her 24-minute-long 911 call, made as her car was filling with water:

Stevens: "Please help me, I don't wanna die."

Dispatcher: "You're not going to die, hold on for a minute."

Stevens: "Well I need um, I'm scared, I'm sorry."

Dispatcher: "I understand that you're scared but there's nothing I can do sitting in a chair so you're going to have to hold on and I'm going to send you somebody OK?"

Police and firefighters arrived about 12 minutes after the initial call, but it took rescue crews more than an hour to reach Stevens. She was already dead when first responders finally reached her vehicle.

Dispatcher: "You're not going to die. I don't know why you're freaking out, it's OK. I know the water level is high."

Stevens: "I'm scared. I'm sorry."

Dispatcher: "I understand that, but you freaking out, doing nothing but losing your oxygen up in there so calm down."

Stevens: "When are they going to be here?"

Dispatcher: "As soon as they get there."

The interim police chief, Danny Baker told KHBS that dispatcher turned in her two weeks' notice, and Steven's call came in on her last shift.

Stevens: "I'm scared I've never had anything like this happen to me before."

Dispatcher: "This will teach you next time don't drive in the water."

Stevens: "Couldn't see it ma'am. I'm sorry or I wouldn't have."

Dispatcher: "I don't see how you didn't see it, you had to go right over it, so."

Baker said he doesn't know why Stevens' 911 call was not given top priority, "I completely understand the disgust and the concern we all have. I understand that listening to a person going through the panic that Ms. Stevens was in those final moments of her life, we would all hope that we would get a little bit better response than perhaps she was given. I don't want us interacting with anyone in that way, whether it's a life-and-death situation or not."

Baker said they're investigating to see if police policies were followed and how they can be improved.

"I don't think the dispatcher realized or understood the severity of the situation."

Baker said the dispatcher would not have been fired.

"Absolutely no criminal --  we looked at that and she did nothing criminally wrong," he said. "I'm not even going to go so far as saying she violated policy."

CNN/KHBS