By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record

A deceptively simple idea to help first responders help accident victims is circulating via e-mail telegraph, ICE.
ICE, an acronym for In Case of Emergency, is the brainchild of a British paramedic Bob Brotchie, who started the ICE campaign in 2005. Brotchie noticed accident victims always seem to have cell phones on them these days, but often aren't able to tell responders who to call.
His idea was to create a universally recognized name ICE and urge people to store the contact numbers to call in case of emergency in their cell phones under that name. Multiple contacts should be stored as ICE1, ICE2 etc. Emergency personnel and hospital staff would be able to contact family and friends quickly by dialing the number stored under ICE.
The idea spread across Europe and Australia, and is now spreading to America.
Theresa Will, director of City/County Health, said, “I'd never heard about it before, but it sure seems like a good idea.”
Some first responders offer these caveats:
The ICE listings are more likely to be useful to hospital personnel than paramedics, who are often too busy trying to stabilize the accident victim to worry about calling next of kin.
 Different kinds of cell phones have different ways of accessing stored addresses which may be unfamiliar to emergency personnel, and some people secure their cell phones with PINs as well.
Cell phones are more easily damaged during accidents than other forms of ID.

For full story, see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.