GAINESVILLE, Fla. – As the tragic pileup crash that took the lives of 11 people unfolded along Interstate 75 in Gainesville last month, 19-year-old Leslie Edvalson, a 911 dispatcher fielding calls for the crashes, was doing her best to stay calm with frantic callers who heard and saw what happened.
"I'm going to have to let you go, we have a lot of lines ringing right now, but we do have help going out," Edvalson is heard saying in one call she took while at the Alachua County Communications Center.
"Oh (expletive), another accident," one caller said. "Oh my gosh."
"What just happened? Tell me what happened. What do you see?" Edvalson said.
"Another accident, another accident going northbound, yeah," the caller said. "Oh my goodness. And that was a truck."
"And what kind of truck, like a semi or pickup?" Edvalson said.
"We can't see, we cannot see. It's like impossible to see," the caller said. "The haze, the smoke, it's like very thick. You can probably only see your hand in front. I do hear an ambulance or police officer coming down the road."
"OK, just one second. Hang on just one second. Stay on the line. Don't hang up," Edvalson said.
Edvlason has only been on the job seven months, but she suddenly found herself relying on her training to be able to handle a pileup of this magnitude.
"I can't imagine what it would've been like seeing something like this. I just heard it and I couldn't sleep for three days," she said. "And being able to talk to people and hopefully calm them down, and giving them some reassurance and getting them help, I'm just so honored to have that job."
When she first began taking calls, Edvalson said she was in disbelief. She knew troopers had already closed I-75 down due to poor visibility. She didn't realize they had opened it back up.
"I did deal with anger at why they would even think to open the roads," Edvalson said. "I mean, it doesn't make any sense to me, even in foresight it didn't make sense."
The 911 call continued.
"Whoa. Oh my God, what is going on?" the caller asked Edvalson on a 911 call.
"OK, we are getting help out there, OK?" Edvalson said.
"Oh my goodness," the caller said.
"How many vehicles have been involved that you've seen so far?" Edvalson said.
"We cannot see, ma'am, we cannot see. This is the third one now already," the caller said.
"Alright, I want you to, if you're able to turn on your emergency flashers, get out of your vehicle and step as far out away from traffic as you can," Edvalson said.
Her instructions weren't coming off the top of her head. Edvalson said every dispatcher has a guide letting them know specifically what to tell callers depending on what situation they're in.
"I just kind of pull back and let the habit take over for that part, and I was just focusing on getting the information that the units would need," Edvalson said.
Edvalson said the experience is something she wouldn't want to go through again, but she's grateful to be able to help. She said she's also grateful to the caller and would like to meet her.
"I don't know if I could've held it together as well as she did," Edvalson said. "She stayed with me, she told me exactly what she was seeing, she answered all of my questions. I could not have asked for a better caller."