KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Wayne Havrelly exposes what's causing this serious problem.

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With the help of emergency officials and cell phone providers, we tested a local 911 system.

Video: Troublesome Tests Of 911 Calls

We checked out a problem one of our viewers experienced -- a problem that cost him precious minutes during a recent emergency.

Scott Manard spotted a terrible accident and stopped to help.

"This poor guy was in severe pain and in need of medical attention," Manard said.

Manard called 911 on his cell phone, but the operator wasn't familiar with the highway he was on.

After being on hold several minutes, the 911 operator gave him a number to call in Eastern Washington.

"I said 'I'm in Western Washington. Why are you giving me that number?' She said 'Well, where are you?' I'd already told her where I was, I said, 'Kitsap County is in Western Washington,' and she was stunned!"

The confused 911 operator was several counties away!

Fortunately, someone with a 2-way radio drove by and alerted a nearby fire department. The victim survived, but he's still in the hospital after almost three months.

Operator: "911, what is your emergency?" Havrelly: "This is Wayne Havrelly with KIRO-TV."

With the permission of Kitsap County officials, we made a series of test calls.

We dialed 911 from five locations in the county, starting with the scene of the accident on the Hansville Highway.

Dispatcher: "Oh you're in Marysville." Havrelly: "I'm calling from Kitsap County."

AT&T was the only service that went to the county we were in. The Nextel phone connected us with Everett 911, Sprint with Island County, Qwest with Everett, Verizon with the State Patrol in Marysville and Cingular with Snohomish County.

We called again from just a few hundred yards south, and the results were different.

Nextel went to Island County instead of Everett and Cingular simply wouldn't connect with anyone.

You can see there's no consistency here at all!

When we moved several miles north to Foul Weather Bluff at the northern tip of the county, none of the calls went to Kitsap operators. Instead, the signals traveled over the Hood Canal to Jefferson County.

When we moved south to Seabeck, again every call we made went to Jefferson County.

On the west side of the county in Manchester, our 911 calls traveled straight to the big city across the bay.

"OK, this is Seattle police?"

911 operators in Kitsap County say they've actually received emergency calls from people in Canada. In fact while we were shooting this video we watched an operator get an emergency call from someone at Snoqualmie Pass.

Cell phone providers say it's a matter of physics. Cell phone signals travel much farther across water than they do over land.

They don't always hit the closest cell tower.

It's quite a challenge for emergency services, especially when you consider some street addresses are identical in neighboring counties.

For example, in Kitsap County there's a Beach Drive. But there's also a Beach Drive in West Seattle.

911 operators tell me there have been times when they've sent emergency crews to an address in the wrong county.

Scott Manard hopes the cell phone technology improves quickly and that 911 operators get more familiar with neighboring counties.

"It was frightening that you couldn't get a service that was intended to get medical attention as quickly as possible," Manard said.

Out of the 30 calls we made, only two made it the correct 911 center.

By the end of this year most 911 centers will have equipment to better pinpoint where the calls are coming from.

Also, the cell phone providers are constantly improving their equipment.

But experts say even the best technology doesn't always work.

So when you call 911, tell the operator what county you're in -- just in case the information on the screen they're looking at is wrong.