Northland rescue chopper dispatched as hoax call sparks large-scale callout in Whangārei Heads

The Northland Rescue Helicopter was swiftly launched in response to a hoax 111 call reporting a serious car crash in Whangārei Heads. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A report of a serious crash in Whangārei Heads that sparked a large-scale response from Northland emergency services was discovered on arrival to be a 111 hoax call.

Monday's con prompted first responders to urge parents to teach children who find hoax calls amusing about the dangers fictional calls pose ahead of next week's school holidays.

Whangārei Heads deputy fire chief Murray Jagger said although hoax calls were rare, if they did occur it tended to be during school holidays – with kids attempting to alleviate boredom.

"Monday's call you had a helicopter, you had a fire service, you had the ambulance, and you had police all taken away from someone else's emergency – that's the biggest issue."

That day saw 111 calls come in before lunchtime that escalated from the caller abruptly hanging up to a report of an overturned car crashed on the corner of Kerr Rd and Pataua South Rd near Parua Bay.

Northland Police Sergeant Ryan Gray said first responders didn't know at the time whether anyone had been seriously hurt.

Taking no chances, they sent a police car to the scene to support the Whangārei Heads volunteer fire service at the same time St John dispatched two ambulances and a Northland rescue chopper.

When the bluff was revealed the second police car and ambulance, as well as the rescue chopper, were turned around en route.

Gray said police found the call-maker at a nearby address and spoke to them about their use of 111.

"What can happen is we're diverting resources to events like this instead of going to family harm or another car crash. It's not like we're short of work.

"Generally it's children 99 per cent of the time. We use the same message they learn in schools – don't hesitate to call 111 in an emergency."

Gray said it was a balancing act as police didn't want children to feel like they couldn't phone 111 in an emergency because they feared they would be arrested.

Jagger said even though hoax calls pulled volunteer firefighters away from their paid employment they would still continue to respond to every call for their service.

"The key message is that for someone, doesn't matter whether a kid or an adult, who phones in a hoax call you're taking valuable emergency response services away from someone who is potentially having a real emergency."

Northland Emergency Services Trust (NEST) CEO Craig Gibbons said the hoax call had little impact on the service financially.

He said the costs of deployments were low compared to the cost of keeping the service available to do the job.

"The bigger concern for me is whoever gets dispatched is not available to do another job."

Gibbons said the misuse of resources could have meant a helicopter from further away, such as Auckland, would be needed to respond to real emergencies in Northland.

"Hoax calls are often exaggerated ... it's a lot of resources heading in that direction. That's the bit that is the most frustrating."

Police data revealed they received about 900,000 111 calls a year. About 20 per cent of those calls result in an emergency or immediate response.

The remaining 80 per cent of 111 calls were considered non-emergency matters - such as reports of historic crimes, noise and parking complaints.

Calls from a mobile phone automatically generate information about the device's approximate location that can be accessed by relevant emergency services.

Police said this improves the accuracy and speed with which emergency call takers can verify a caller's location.