Although the exact protocol varies from state to state the one thing that emergency responders are all trained to look for is a means of contacting priority individuals relevant to you. The one who knows your important medical information and other potential important information that may be helpful in your treatment when you are in some for of incapacitated and cannot speak for yourself.

No, this is not some crazy comment made as a result of too much celebrating on New Year's Eve. It is a logical comment that is directly related to the amount of time in which we travel and cell phones. I would gander to say that some of you are well aware of the "ICE" that is being discussed.

To begin with ICE is not the cold solid form of water that we use in our ice chests, pour our tea over or in the case of winter driving find ourselves sometimes sliding around on occasionally. It could, however, be vitally important to you and the ones you love if by chance you are an accident during your travels or become ill and cannot speak for yourself. If you fall victim to such an unfortunate situation, how will emergency officials know who among all of your phone contacts they should call? Yes, you might have your contacts categorized into different groups, but the time wasted searching through your phone could prove to be even more unfortunate. When life and death hang in the balance--every second counts.

Although the exact protocol varies from state to state the one thing that emergency responders are all trained to look for is a means of contacting priority individuals relevant to you. The one who knows your important medical information and other potential important information that may be helpful in your treatment when you are in some for of incapacitated and cannot speak for yourself.

*ICE stands for “In Case of Emergency”. It began in the mid 2000's as the frequency of cell phones skyrocketed across the world. If a first responder can find your cell phone and needs to contact your family, they are trained to look for *ICE on your cell phone. The asterisk placed before the letters ICE will display this near the top of your contact list making it a much faster search. You determine who and how the ICE information is listed. It could be the number is directly in the list and can be dialed directly. It may also be that you identify more than one contact name and number listed in the notes section. This could prove to be helpful if the person you have listed to be contacted in case of that emergency frequently travels with you and is also with you when the unfortunate incident takes place. Research shows that nearly 75% of us do not have any ICE contacts in their phone or in their wallets.

There are some cases where having ICE in your phone proves useless. The first of which is if your cell phone battery is dead or destroyed in the accident. The second pitfall is for those of you who have your phones protected by an access code. Some cell phone manufacturers are now building in a means for your ICE contacts to be available to first responders even if your phone is locked with special features similar to the lost phone program that is also a feature on some phones. There are still ways that you can help those first responders. It is advised that you check up on what recommendations your state and the states you will be traveling through have in place. Some may have other things in place that let first responders know where to look in your automobile for such information. Kentucky for example has a program where a colored dot is placed on the windshield. This colored dot tells first responders to look in the glove box for an envelope with a matching dot. That envelope contains names and phone numbers and maybe addresses of the people that you want contacted in case of an emergency.

In closing, what you decide to do is your business. Consider one more possibility as to the value of knowing to look for such important information. We all drive a lot during some unusual hours because of our fishing. What happens if you are the first person to come upon the scene of an accident and you have already called 911 and have taken whatever steps are necessary to help? You could be the one who needs to make contact with those people. Instead of wondering if there was anything else you could do, you could be lending a helping hand by notifying the ICE contacts. Even if it's not high on your priority list, think about how important it might be t the people in your life! I am certain they would say "You Should Have ICE on Your Phone"! Say I Love You by adding and using ICE today!