subject: Make Sure That You Can Be Contacted In An Emergency [print this page] Make Sure That You Can Be Contacted In An Emergency
Following the bombing in the UK in 2005 the Metropolitan Police and the East England Ambulance Service launched a global initiative to help trace relatives in the event of an accident or a similar large scale disaster.
Police in London lost valuable time trying to contact the next of kin of the injured to let them know that their relatives were alive and to advise them where the injured were being taken to. The police found that trawling through cellphone address books was a time consuming task that kept them away from other duties.
Practically everyone these days carries a cell phone and every cell phone has an address book.
In 2005 paramedic, Bob Brotchie, came up with a very simple idea. That idea was called the ICE program. The initials stand for In Case of Emergency.
They are calling on everyone with a cell phone to have at least one entry in their address book starting with the letters ICE.
First responders and rescue services around the world are starting to look for this entry first on a victim's cell phone to find a contact name. This is the first place that the will look.
The suggested format is "1ICE mum" or "1ICE wife" followed by second and third contacts eg. "2ICE dad" and "3ICE son" etc. The number at the front makes sure that these numbers will be the first numbers displayed on the screen.
Research in the UK showed that fewer than 25% of people carried any details of who they would like telephoned following a serious accident.
This simple solution should make it easier for the emergency services to contact you (program your number into your children's phones) or your next of kin, should there be a need for it which, of course, we hope there never will be.
So go on, do it now. Get out your cell phone and make an ICE entry. Do it for your kids and pass it on to your friends and family.
Gareth Little-Hales
Gareth, based in Melbourne, Australia, is the webmaster for [http://www.CompleteCarCare.info] check out the range of car care products at the site.
