In Case of Emergency (ICE)

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: A public-interest campaign called ICE is fast picking up across the country. ICE is aimed at creating an awareness among mobile phone users the need to store in their phone memory card a particular phone number of their closest family members or friends who could be contacted in an emergency situation. ICE precisely stands for In Case of Emergency. Almost everyone these days carries a mobile phone with many names and numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than the phone user, knows which of these numbers belongs to his\her closest family members or friends. "If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill suddenly, the people attending on us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know whom to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the right contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) campaign," says a campaign mailer that is currently being circulated on the Internet. ICE is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by majority of the population, all one needs to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name ICE. An unknown paramedic hit upon the ICE idea after he found on many an occasion that there were always mobile phones with patients at the scenes of accidents but did not know which number to call. He, therefore, thought it would be good if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose and coined ICE. In an emergency situation, emergency service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialling the number one has stored as ICE. For more than one contact name, one can simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3. A great idea that might make a difference and help save lives! "Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our mobile phones today," the e-mail exhorts. "It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind in peace. ICE will speak for you when you are not able to," the email adds. Students and software professionals -- even some journalists -- have now taken it upon themselves to take the campaign forward and ultimately make ICE a unique national emergency code. Hail the move.