The other day I had a friend in my car and my husband called.  The caller ID came up on the console and indicated that “ICE” was calling.  She thought it must be some inside joke related to the movie “Top Gun” or pet name that I called him.  The real story was that “ICE” is an acronym for “In Case of Emergency”.  We had a conversation about it, and when we were done she went into to her phone and changed one of her contacts to “ICE” as well.

Frankly, the only reason it was ever in my phone was because someone had told me about it and it seemed like a logical idea.  My “ICE” contact is my husband so that if I was in an accident or something similar, he could be notified.  Beyond my logic that this is an easy thing to do, it’s a simple three second measure of sensibility, there really wasn’t a whole lot of thought put into it.

Originally the “ICE” cell phone movement attempted to gain traction way back (as my children would say) in 2005.  The ideas originator was a British emergency responder by the name of Bob Brotchi who was one of the paramedics on site of the London bomb attacks.  As he was trying to help victims and in his attempt to identify individuals and notify next of kin, he thought of the “ICE” idea and attempted to get it to become one of those standard usage practices among all cell phone users.

I think it’s a brilliant idea, though the “campaign” never gained major traction because of all the issues cell phone locks and more created.  Recently I went on the hunt to see if the coined phrase “there’s an app for that” was true, and it is true.  There are several apps for this.  Though, from what I can see, none of which really solve the issue in a relevant way and are a little “so so”.

What I’ve concluded from all of this is the same thing I concluded all those years ago hearing it for the first time…that the three seconds it takes to go in and choose an “in case of emergency” contact is worth it on the off chance that at some point in my life it proves useful.  Other then it generating funny conversations every now and again from people who notice it, it doesn’t hurt anything to have it there for a just in case moment.  If it proves itself worth while in any way I’ll be glad I invested the three seconds.  If it doesn’t, I’m not out much.  The only thing I would suggest is giving the heads up to whomever you choose as your “ICE” contact.  The logic behind that is equally simple.