Suggs Park NA

Safety and Cell Phones

Time of Crisis.........Who's your

To its owner, the cell phone is an indispensable lifeline at times of crisis, reuniting loved ones separated by unforseen events at the touch of a bottom.

But......for members of the emergency services making life and death decisions, the cell phone poses a conundrum: Which of the many numbers stored in its electronic address book should they call to reach a casualty's next of kin?

Now, there's a simple initiative which was conceived by a paramedic in Britain! It has gained momentum on both sides of the Atlantic to try to solve this cell phone problem. Cell users are being urged to put the acronym ICE "In case of Emergency" before the names of people they want to designate as who to notify in their cell address book. You would create entries such as "ICE Dad" or "ICE Michael".

Paramedics, police and firefighters often waste valuable time trying to figure out which name in a cell phone to call when disaster strikes. Emergency service personnel say they must look through wallets for clues or scroll through a cell address book and guess! Many people identify their spouses by name in their cell, making them indistinguishable from other entries.

And....sometimes dialing the number which might say "mom" or "dad" might not be appropriate, particularly if they are elderly, suffer ill health or Alzheimer's.

The ICE initiative would give emergency personnel a way of getting hold of the appropriate person in just a few seconds!

"Article excerpted from Article by Sam Coates, Washington Post Staff Writer"

SPNA Encourages ICE!

SPNA encourages all residents to particiate in the "ICE" initiative for their cell phones.

Any help that we can offer to our emergency services personnel is something we should do......not to mention the piece of mind it will give your family to know you've taken this step in providing an emergency contact for yourself!

Encourage all your family members with cell phones to join the "ICE" initiative!