In Case of Emergency

So, I went skydiving (tandem jump) on Saturday morning in Orange, Virginia. The experience was beautiful and thrilling, and I would highly recommend it to anyone, pointing out that the tandem jumpers there that I spoke with were all comforting and extremely experienced (one guy I talked to has nearly 8,000 jumps under his belt).

I never, ever would have done this if my colleague and friend Sharon Groves didn’t pester me to hell on a busy workday. The stars aligned in her favor. But once I knew what I had gotten into, you better believe that I finally made a living will and thought about emergency contacts.

So, you’ve probably heard about ICE – In Case of Emergency. Store emergency contacts in your phone starting with ICE so that if you’re in an accident, someone can alert your contact immediately by going through your phone. Apparently the concept is fairly well known, going by the comments to a LifeHacker post on the topic. I’m still skeptical, though.

To further complicate matters, what about if your cell phone is locked and requires a code to use? Many (if not all?) cell phones have a feature that allow you to make an emergency call (911) if the phone is locked with a code (in fact, you can call 911 from any working cell phone even if the phone is no longer enrolled with a service provider).

So, why not make it a requirement for all phones to have a designated emergency number to call that would be clearly accessible to anyone (particularly people who don’t know about ICE) even if the phone is locked with a security code?

I’m going to talk to my congresswoman about this. In the meantime, make sure to include emergency contacts on your phone, and also on a card next to your ID or drivers license (that should also include allergies and medical history, if necessary)!