Survivor of Sudbury boat crash says he will never call 911 again

The only survivor of a boat crash in 2013 says he's lost faith in the province's 911 communication system and will never  phone the number in any future emergency event.

Rob Dorzek finished his testimony at a joint coroner's inquest in Sudbury on Tuesday. The inquest is looking into two fatal events — a 2013 boating tragedy in Sudbury and a 2014 death in Casselman.

In June 2013, Dorzek was on a boat that crashed on Lake Wanapitei in Greater Sudbury. Matthew Humeniuk, 33, and Michael Kritz, 34, died at the scene. Stephanie Bertrand, 25, who was Dorzek's girlfriend, died of her injuries one week later.

The night of the crash, Dorzek phoned 911 five different times. Emergency crews arrived more than an hour after his first call.

At the inquest, Dorzek expressed his frustration at multiple problems he encountered.

He had texted a map of where he was to a 911 call taker. He also says he was instructed by that same person to light a signal fire so crews could locate the crash site. That fire ended up spreading to the boat where his two friends, Humeniuk and Kritz lay unconscious.

Dorzek expressed his frustration at the communication system.

"I'll bleed out before I'll call 911 again," he said at the inquest.

"I'll call a family, friend, whoever. But not 911."

'Chaotic' night

Later on Tuesday, Vicky Groulx, a supervisor at the Central Ambulance Communications Centre in Sudbury testified. This is the provincial agency that dispatches ambulances for 911 calls.

She explained the conditions for those answering calls at the call centre in Sudbury.

Groulz also said that particular night was "chaotic" due to the number of other calls that had come in, since it was the Canada Day weekend, adding the centre was understaffed.

It was established during the inquest that the call taker on the first four of Dorzek's five calls to 911 was Nancy Gosselin.

Gosselin was unable to attend the inquest due to a medical condition.

When Dorzek texted a screenshot of his Google map location to Gosselin's cell phone, Groulx says she and another staffer tried to match it to the map in the call centre, but it wasn't until she set the phone down and the picture readjusted that Groulx says they realized they had been looking at it upside down.

Groulx also told the inquest that she had contacted the Sudbury dispatcher for the province's air ambulance service, ORNGE, to see if they could assist. But at the time, the nearest helicopter was 50 minutes away.

The inquest also heard that the call taker, Gosselin, did not know this detail when she told Dorzek to light a signal fire on the island in hopes of having rescuers see it from the air.

It wasn't until Dorzek's third call to 911 that the CACC call centre was able to get the latitude and longitude coordinates from his cell phone and dispatch emergency responders to the scene.

Groulx says she was not aware that there was a fire rescue boat docked at the marina in Skead.

Groulx became emotional during her testimony when she recalls the call taker, Gosselin, was devastated when she heard the signal fire had grown into a bush fire at the crash site.

Groulx was asked at the inquest if she felt 911 failed the victims of the boating tragedy.

"I believe we did all we could that night," she said.