HUDSONVILLE, Mich. — Before the sirens, before the flashing lights, before first responders ever hit the freeway — it starts in a room where dispatchers are the first voice you hear in an emergency.
When nearly 100 vehicles piled up on I-196 on January 19, the team at Ottawa County Central Dispatch had to handle a surge of calls in real time as chaos unfolded on the freeway.
"There is a semi across the road… broken in half," one caller reported in 911 audio from that day.
As drivers described the scene, phones inside Ottawa County Central Dispatch were lighting up.
"Cars are piling up!" another caller said.
Katie Holzman, Ottawa County Central Dispatch supervisor, said they received the first call about a jackknifed semi on the highway, and then a couple minutes later, they started getting numerous calls about multiple pileups.
"We took 534 calls the day of the pileup incident during the time that they were still on scene," Holzman said.
That's more than double what a typical winter day might bring, according to Holzman.
Many of the callers were directly involved in the massive pileup.
"A lot of our callers were pulling up to it or not involved but you try to get them help as quick as you can," Holzman said.
It's someone else's worst moment, but Ottawa County Central Dispatch Executive Director Matt Groesser said it's dispatchers' responsibility to stay steady.
"911 handles just about every phase of life… from childbirth… through trauma and unfortunately death," Groesser said.
The dispatch center serves nearly 316,000 people across Ottawa County and the city of Holland.
"We're often the glue that holds most of the system together… the coordination of all of that will run through this room," Groesser said.
While even the calm voices feel the weight of their responsibilities, there are also fulfilling moments in the job.
"The rewarding part of the job makes it worth it. The knowing that we helped all these people kind of helps of the high stress mental part of the job," Holzman said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
