Gravely injured in a motorcycle crash, Kurt Regnier lay in the darkness of a McHenry County cornfield and called 911 twice for help. But he was unable to tell dispatchers where he was, and outdated cellular equipment kept them from pinpointing his location, authorities said Monday.
Four hours elapsed before he was found shortly after dawn Sunday, and by that time, Regnier, 47, was dead, apparently of multiple injuries, including a broken neck, officials said.
“We had no idea that he had life-threatening injuries, but it was certainly a possibility and definitely a concern of ours,” said McHenry County Sheriff’s Patrol Capt. Anton Cundiff.
Regnier, who lived in tiny Capron in Boone County, was on his way home early Sunday from NASCAR races in Joliet, where he had engaged in one of his favorite pastimes, tailgating with four friends, relatives said.
Riding a 2003 Harley-Davidson with a small barbecue grill tied to the back, Regnier drove off Dunham Road in unincorporated McHenry County about five miles from his home.
When he made his first emergency call at 1:28 a.m., Regnier told the dispatcher he had been in a single-vehicle crash and knew only that he was in a cornfield, police said. Regnier told the dispatcher he thought one of his legs might be broken, and the dispatcher tried to stay on the line with him, but the call was dropped, Cundiff said.
In much of the country–including Chicago and other areas where 76 percent of U.S. residents live–emergency systems can pinpoint the location of cell phone calls within about 300 to 900 feet, said Roger Hixson, the technical issues director for the National Emergency Numbers Association in Columbus, Ohio. Cellular carriers are under orders from the Federal Communications Commission to give that service to jurisdictions that request it.
But FCC filings indicate McHenry County and Winnebago County have not requested the more advanced technology required to track a call according to the most recent reports made to Federal Communications Commission by the nation’s wireless carriers, Hixson said.
In order for the new technology to work, a cell phone user’s telephone also has to have more recent, compatible technology. It could not immediately be determined if Regnier’s phone had that technology.
So when he called 911, dispatchers only knew which cell towers picked up his call, not where he was, Cundiff said. The first call came in from a tower in McHenry County. When Regnier made a second call 8 minutes later, it was routed to police in Winnebago County because a cell tower 64 miles away from the first tower picked it up, Cundiff said.
After Regnier’s calls, McHenry, Winnebago and Boone County sheriff’s departments all swung into action. McHenry County pulled officers from other duties to search the area surrounding the tower from which Regnier’s first call came. They also dispatched a private helicopter with spotlights and thermal imaging technology.
But the tower along U.S. Route 14 was miles from the crash and officers weren’t sure Regnier was anywhere near it.
It wasn’t until after daylight began breaking and a motorist called at 5:37 a.m. to say he had seen a crashed motorcycle that emergency crews found Regnier. He was dead, authorities said.
Police determined that Regnier had been going west on Dunham Road southwest of Harvard and somehow had gone off the road to the south, ending up about 30 to 40 feet from the pavement in corn that stood about knee high, a half-mile east of the Boone County line, Cundiff said.
“There are no street lights out there,” Cundiff said.
The inability of the sheriffs’ departments to find Regnier highlights a problem emergency dispatchers throughout the country have been pressing wireless carriers to solve since the early 1990s. Dispatchers say a full-scale upgrade of the country’s 911 systems is needed to help them deal with the influx of calls they now receive from mobile phones.
Cook, DuPage and Lake Counties have completed what is known as the “phase 2” upgrade for all the major wireless carriers serving those areas, and Kane and Will counties have started the upgrade process, according to the National Emergency Numbers Association.
The upgrade process has been arduous, Hixson said. The cost, covered by a tax levied on wireless customers, and the breadth of the project have made it slow to complete.
“It was too complex and too expensive to do it all at once,” Hixson said. “We hoped it would be completely done by now. The process has accelerated in recent months.”
Hixson said it is not surprising that Regnier’s second call was routed to the second tower farther away in Winnebago County. The closer tower may have been experiencing heavier traffic when he made the second call, pushing it to the Winnebago County tower.
Members of Regnier’s family said Monday that because of the need for an upgrade in the area’s cellular network, they do not fault police for not finding Regnier quickly.
“It’s the technology that has to improve,” said Regnier’s sister Paulette Edson, who was with other relatives at his home Monday evening.
Family members said they believe police worked hard to find Regnier.
“I’m sure the police did everything they could,” said another sister, Beverly Waterman.
Residents of Capron, a town 8 miles west of Harvard with a population of about 1,000, said Regnier, whose father is the former mayor, was known as a successful entrepreneur.
“He was real hard-working,” said Lana Iechholz, operator of a gas station in Capron, who has known Regnier’s family for years. “He built up his own concrete company. He built it up and had two or three crews.”
McHenry County commissioners said Monday that they will take a new look at upgrading their cellular technology.
The county is planning to spend $11 million to upgrade the sheriff’s department’s communications system, said Commissioner Tina Hill.
But another commissioner said that although new technology has been discussed, commissioners did not realize until Regnier’s death how much it was needed.
“You don’t realize the importance until something like this happens, where a gentleman probably could have been saved if we could have pinpointed him and sent a rescue squad or even a helicopter,” said McHenry County Commissioner Mary Lou Zierer.
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