Man Dies After Unheeded Call to Remove Obstacle

She called from a pay phone, pleading with police to have a mattress removed from the middle of a highway.

But according to a tape of the Aug. 23 telephone call, the rookie dispatcher told Kim Taylor it was the job of the California Highway Patrol, and no, she couldn’t transfer her.

“Never mind. I’ll just let somebody get killed,” said a frustrated Taylor, who had called the nonemergency 311 line from a nearby shopping center.

Less than a half-hour later, a station wagon swerved to avoid the mattress and rolled over, killing passenger Louis Saveikis, a 75-year-old man from Pittsburgh.

The dispatcher did offer to give Taylor the Highway Patrol’s number, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

But she was out of change.

“Public safety is our primary goal, and in this case, we should have transferred,” San Jose Police Chief Bill Lansdowne acknowledged Wednesday. “I expect better professional demeanor and service to the community.”

The dispatcher, who was not identified, was back at work Thursday but was closely supervised, police said.

Lansdowne said that although the dispatcher did not follow police protocol, the mishandling of the call did not contribute to the traffic fatality. Police spokesman Louis Quezada said Thursday that another dispatcher had received a similar call 20 minutes earlier that was forwarded to the CHP.

“We feel horrible for the family of the individual that was killed,” Quezada said. “However, that has no bearing upon our secondary call that we received.”

CHP spokesman Rich Stewart declined to answer any questions, the Mercury News said--including why it took almost 40 minutes for a CHP officer to arrive at the scene--until after the agency completes its investigation.