Firewhirl: ICE on Cell Phones Archives

ICE on Cell Phones

From the Washington Post, a new idea to assist emergency responders in contacting next of kin:

To its owner, the cell phone is an indispensable lifeline at times of crisis, reuniting loved ones separated by unforeseen events at the touch of a button. But for members of the emergency services making life-and-death decisions, the cell poses a conundrum: Which of the numbers stored in its electronic address book should they call to reach a casualty's next of kin?

Now a simple initiative, conceived by a paramedic in Britain, has gained momentum on both sides of the Atlantic to try to solve this problem. Cell users are being urged to put the acronym ICE -- "in case of emergency" -- before the names of the people they want to designate as next of kin in their cell address book, creating entries such as "ICE -- Dad" or "ICE -- Alison."

This sounds like a pretty good thing. I bet it won’t be long and the cell phone companies will be including this feature in their phones.

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