Would you know what to do if you discovered someone who was unconscious and injured? Of course you call an ambulance and if you've had training in first aid then you apply all you know to the situation. But what about after that? This person is obviously not where they're supposed to be, their family and friends could be worrying, but there's no way to know who to call.

This is the exact reason why the ICE number was developed. In summer of 2005 a study was carried out by British network provider Vodafone, which found that under one quarter of the population carried emergency contact information with them. As a result, a professional Paramedic in Britain came up with the idea of everyone having their next of kin or emergency contact stored under one specific name in their mobile phone. In Case of Emergency became ICE and that paramedic Bill Brotchie's idea was launched as a national awareness campaign. Four years on it's now spread right across Australia and the whole of Europe.

What Government organizations and Ambulance crews are now keen to do is raise awareness of the ICE number in America and Canada. All it takes is for you to save your emergency contact under the pseudonym 'ICE'. If Police or paramedics discover your phone at the site where you have been injured then ICE is the first thing they will search for in order to inform your loved ones. If you have been the victim of a crime then having an ICE number stored could provide vital information too; your contact could confirm where you were traveling from, why and where you were traveling to. Bill Brotchie's reasons for developing the idea were that he had attended situations where patients were unable to speak their name, but there was nobody to call to ask for information either. In a situation where a person is trapped and cannot speak, having an ICE contact who can be brought to the scene can make things more bearable and certainly less distressing.

ICE is now going global, with a New York office offering free stickers, card carriers and cards if the public send them a stamped and self addressed envelope (address details below). In addition, Apple Inc. have included an ICE phone application on their iPhone so that the ICE number can be accessed easily and with one tap of the screen.

Since ICE has been so successful in Britain, the rest of Europe and Australia it is highly likely that it will break into the US and Canada as well. For anybody concerned about personal safety this is a guaranteed way to ensure that your loved ones and next of kin will know where you are and what has happened, if something bad were to happen to you. Alarmist? Perhaps, but there's certainly no denying that accidents and crimes do happen and that if they were to happen to you, you would feel distressed without your parents, partner, friends or children present.

Send a stamped and self addressed envelope to:
ICE4SAFETY
PO Box 82
Dewitt, New York
13214 USA

Stan Tian

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