IF you are carrying your mobile phone as a life-line -- think again! Emergency 999 calls for help may fall on the wrong ears, as one Fylde man at the scene of a road traffic accident was horrified to discover.

Chris Williams of Oxford Road, Ansdell, found himself first on the scene of a car crash on the corner of Marine Drive by Fairhaven Lake in Lytham St Annes on Friday. He found a lady driver in tears and suffering from shock and confusion.

Unsure of her medical condition he dialled 999 on his mobile and requested an ambulance and police presence. This was at approximately 4.45pm.

When no-one arrived Mr Williams began to panic and made two further 999 calls consecutively at roughly 5.15pm and 5.20pm.

It took more than 45 minutes from making his first 999 call for an ambulance to eventually arrive at 5.36pm.

Fortunately in this case it didn't turn out to be as serious a case as was originally thought.

But Mr Williams told The Citizen of the frustration he experienced. "The first operator I spoke to was very stroppy and kept asking me if I was sure it was an emergency. I briefly described the situation and I had to persist that it was an emergency.

"The next two calls were diverted to Bootle. On the first occasion I was told that they couldn't help as they were unable to put me through and on the final occasion I was told that mobiles go through to Bootle and they couldn't put me through to the appropriate station but that they would get the local police to call me.

"By now I was getting extremely irate and couldn't believe what was happening. There was a sense that it was all extremely casual."

After making investigations with local police and ambulance control rooms it was confirmed that St Annes police didn't receive any 999 calls from a member of the public at this time but did receive a call from Merseyside police alerting them to the situation at 5.22pm -- which is approximately half an hour after Mr Williams made his first 999 call.

Paul McComiskey, the patient response co-ordinator for Lancashire ambulance, said: "We received a call from the police requesting an ambulance to the location of the accident at 17.28 which we acted on accordingly. It took 8 minutes and 29 seconds for the ambulance to reach its destination from receiving the call."

An insider from one police control room explained to The Citizen why it could take so long for 999 calls made from mobiles to be acted on.

We were informed that 999 calls made from mobiles could potentially be diverted to anywhere in the UK as there is no way of differentiating where the caller is calling from -- 999 calls have even been picked up from as far as Europe.

Whereas if you make a 999 call from your home it would be diverted straight to your local police station.

Furthermore, whichever station picks up the mobile call cannot simply transfer the caller to the appropriate station but has to take all the details of the incident and alert the local station themselves via the normal police line number which can take any amount of time, which is clearly unacceptable in the face of a life and death situation.

Mr Williams made his call from a One-2-One mobile which is attached to the Cable & Wireless company. A spokesperson said: "Cable & Wireless fulfilled all its responsibility in regard to these calls."

One-2-One were also contacted twice and asked what the procedure was for 999 calls. At the time of going to press they hadn't replied.