Mr. HUBERT. “11:21,” I beg your pardon. Then the column immediately
below that, “Time received,” “C--11:21 a.m., November 24th.”
Can you explain that to us, please?
Mrs. CASON. Well, the writing was not on the original call sheet. The
original call sheet was stamped in the timeclock. The only reason I can
see for it is that in the copying of the call sheet, the printed matter
did not show up, and it was necessary to write this in in ink.
Mr. HUBERT. In other words, it is your thought that the original of
which 5135 is a photostatic copy, has got the time printed, and that
someone just simply wrote it in?
Mrs. CASON. I feel like it was stamped; yes, sir. I am almost positive
it was.
Mr. HUBERT. This writing in blue ink that I referred to is not in your
handwriting?
Mrs. CASON. No, sir; it is not.
Mr. HUBERT. What would have been the normal procedure for stamping the
time in those two columns?
Mrs. CASON. Well, ordinarily, we make up the call sheet before we stamp
it in complete form. In other words, we don’t do part of it and stamp
that and then do part of it again and stamp that time. I, myself,
always stamp the time that the ambulance is ordered regardless of
whether it is on the air or whether it is sent from the office itself.
Whereas, some other telephone clerks may have left the “Ambulance
ordered” place blank for the dispatcher to stamp.
That is, if it was an ambulance on the air call.
Mr. HUBERT. You feel certain, therefore, that you, having prepared the
card, did put it into the time clock?
Mrs. CASON. Yes, sir. I feel sure I stamped the card twice as to the
time. Once for the ambulance and----
Mr. HUBERT. How long would it take you to prepare the card?
Mrs. CASON. Just a few seconds. It is very routine, and it just takes a
matter of a few seconds if you are familiar with it.
Mr. HUBERT. What kind of time clocks are these? I don’t mean the make
of them, but how do they work? Are they automatic?
Mrs. CASON. Yes; they are. They are all electric clocks, and I believe
the name of them is Synchron. They show the time on the face of the
clock, and you insert the call sheet on the place marked by a red
arrow, and when you place the call sheet in, the weight of it causes
the clock to stamp the time.
Mr. HUBERT. You do not have to punch anything down?
Mrs. CASON. The weight of the card causes the clock to stamp the time.
Mr. HUBERT. Now, is that clock checked at any time as to accuracy?
Mrs. CASON. I don’t know how often they are checked. I do know that
sometimes we find a discrepancy as to the time on the clock insofar as
sometimes when we dispatch--when we sent a call sheet through and the
time received may be--it says, this could have been 11:23 on the time I
received the call, and when we dispatched it it would have shown 11:22,
then we would know that the clocks were off, because we couldn’t--I
couldn’t receive a call after we had dispatched it.
Mr. HUBERT. But, the dispatcher would be using a different clock from
you?
Mrs. CASON. And when we find these errors in these clocks this way,
someone in the office usually adjusts them to where they all are
stamping the same time. It doesn’t happen very often that they get out
of time, but sometimes they do.
Mr. HUBERT. They are not all tied into a master clock?
Mrs. CASON. No; not as far as I know. I don’t really know how the
system works, but I don’t believe they are. I believe they are all on
individual basis.
Mr. HUBERT. I notice that Exhibit 5135 shows an “M.J.”; is that in your
handwriting?
Mrs. CASON. Yes; it is.