Kids dialing 999

[Maz]

That was the reason

I don't understand this.

 

[guitarpete247]

Also the accidental clicking of cables in the wind could send the pulse 1 to the exchange. 3 such clicks could be read as 111. 999 was thought to be extremely unlikely to happen so was chosen.

I once dialed 999 by accident. I was out on the school field with a class (I'm an Art teacher) and sat down and must have pressed the No. 9 key three times. The next I knew was my phone ringing and the emergency services operator telling me I had just dialed them and they could hear my lesson.
The phone I had at the time was one of these early Nokia's and I don't think it had a keypad lock facility.

 

[Maz]

Apologies. I meant that it was chosen to be easy to remember but hard to dial accidentally.

Understood.

I also heard (urban myth?) that '911' will also work instead of '999'.
Not sure I want to test it out though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Crackle]

I had a phone where the 0 stopped working and the 9 repeated twice after you pressed it. It didn't happen all the time and it took me two calls to a number beginning 09, followed by a rather puzzled conversation with an emergency services operator before it dawned on me what was going on. I decided not to test my empirical theory by pressing 9 again though and found a safer number to confirm it with.

 

[summerdays]

As a child I remember we used to visit my Mum's old work at the telephone exchange occasionally when we were back in NI and we were allowed to "help" with the cables - unless the call was an emergency - then a big light bulb - grapefruit sized, would light up and we had to stand away from the desk.

As for dialling 999 - so far my children have avoided that though I did know a friends child who managed it a couple of times so that the police did tell her to move the phone to somewhere they couldn't reach. (I'm surprised she needed to be told!)