Nov '05 Tools

ICE (In Case of Emergency) uses your cell phone directory to tell police or others whom to contact in an emergency.

If you should ever become incapacitated in case of an emergency, emergency workers will need a quick way to find out who they should contact. Paramedics, police and firefighters often waste valuable time trying to figure out which name in a cell phone to call when disaster strikes. They need to talk immediately to a family member or close friend so you can get the medical attention you need as soon as possible.

Saving “In Case of Emergency” entries in your cell phone under the acronym “ICE" is a simple step that could make a life or death difference during an emergency. That information could be accessed by emergency personnel at an accident scene or in the hospital emergency room to contact a family member or friend, who could provide potentially life-saving medical details about the incapacitated victim.

Increasingly emergency personnel are being directed to look for ICE numbers when helping individuals who are unconscious or otherwise unable to provide personal information.

Cell phone companies such as Sprint Nextel and Cellular One are promoting ICE through a variety of ways, such as including information about the ICE program in customer invoices and promoting the program on their websites.

Paramedic Bob Brotchie originated the ICE concept in the U.K. last year (www.icecontact.com) to deal with a long-standing problem encountered by emergency workers - how to contact relatives or other interested parties for a victim who is unconscious, unable to respond to questions, or deceased. British cell phone users were urged to put the ICE numbers into their cell phone address books before the name of the person they want contacted if they are ever incapacitated. Cell phone users can easily create entries such as “ICE – Dad” or “ICE – Sis” etc., each with the appropriate phone number, to let emergency workers know quickly who to contact if they are unable to communicate. Additional emergency contacts can be listed by simply noting ICE1, ICE 2, etc.

Multiple ICE contacts are very important. Authorities recommend at least five. They give emergency personnel a choice of whom to call. They also increase the probability that authorities will be able to reach one or more of your ICE contacts.

Be sure to tell in advance those you choose to be your ICE contacts. It's also a good practice to use your ICE listings routinely to call those people. This will ensure the numbers are always current and correct. It will also save on double listings and conserve memory.

It’s a no cost, easy safety plan everyone with a cell phone can participate in. Valuable time is often lost trying to figure out which name in a cell phone to call when disaster strikes. Also, many people identify family members by name in their cell, making them indistinguishable from other entries.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2003, over 900,000 emergency room patients could not provide contact information because they were incapacitated. The ICE initiative is available free to the 192 million cell phone users in the U.S.