Your Neighbor's Life Threatening Emergency Is Important To Us. Please Stay On The Line, And We Will Collect Your Credit Card Information Shortly.

If you wish to avoid a $300 service charge, please hang up now.

More legislative brilliance:

911 Just Became Worthless

There's stupid, and then there's really stupid.

This fits into the second category:

Apparently, the town of Tracy, California (a bit east of the Bay Area) has decided to turn 911 emergency calls into a profit center. Karl Bode points us to the news that the town now wants people to pay $300 for every 911 call. Of course, if you think you might be a frequent 911 caller, they've got a plan for that. For the low, low, low price of just $48 per year, you can call 911 as many times as you want. Yes, that's right folks, there's a special deal for those of you who regularly have emergencies. Make sure to order now!

There is an update on this - apparently it will only apply if the fire department has to respond to medical emergencies.

You know, like, for example, if you're driving down the road and see a horrible single-car wreck happen in front of you?

The 911 system has just become worthless folks.

I won't dial any more when traveling, and I've phoned in a couple of really bad single-vehicle accidents that I happened upon "first." I have no idea if my doing so saved lives or not, but it is reasonable to assume that it might have.

Those people may now die, because unless I can be assured that I won't get hit with a $300 bill for calling in an accident everywhere in this nation I'm not going to do it, and this sort of idiocy has a way of spreading - rapidly.

Thanks to the people of Tracy, California, which believes that raping its citizens is the most important aspect of things, I can no longer use my cell phone to call in auto accidents without the risk of being charged $300 for being a good Samaritan.