I'm sorry to hear you came so close an accident. But also happy that you did not drive the car hitting the boy.
The emergency central should ideally have capacity to handle all incoming calls, but if an unusual amount of emergency situations arise at the same time, they can't deal with all at once. And you can assume that half of the calls they get are not emergency calls. Maybe also unusually many people needed help with a cake recipe that morning. (I'm not joking.)
But Romero - this is emergency services we're talking about here, not Pizza Hut. Something is seriously wrong with the system when someone does not pick up immediately. What if it had been someone else whose situation was a bit more dire and no one was there to help (as opposed to this when alot of people got out of their cars)? What if your home was broken into, or what you had a serious injury and were bleeding to death - you'd be okay with having to wait? Not only for the machine itself - but for it to actually ring (and I waited 6 or 7 rings before the voice mail even took the call). When it finally did, the message was relayed in both French and English. That there could very well be the difference between getting here on time and just letting someone die.
It might be acceptable to you but it sure isn't to me. 911 should have the resources to be available all the time, to anyone who calls. I know they get alot of pranking, but bad things are going to happen if they're 'too busy'.