I'm pleased to present the winter 2006 online edition of Perspective, PEMCO's customer newsletter. Thank you for subscribing. We've now issued three online editions, and I'm glad you find this e-mail version useful and convenient. As always, feel free to share Perspective with your friends, and watch for the spring issue coming out in May. I welcome your feedback about Perspective. Simply send your comments to perspective@pemco.com.

Jon Osterberg
Perspective editor

Add ICE contact to your cell phone directory

If you couldn’t speak for yourself after a car accident or medical emergency, your cell phone could – if you add an ICE (In Case of Emergency) designation next to a name in your phone’s directory.

With ICE, emergency workers can quickly search your cell phone list and tell your ICE contact what has happened. They also can ask that person potentially life-saving questions about medical conditions or drug allergies you may have.

Emergency workers often have difficulty identifying next of kin based on the information most people carry in their wallets. And name-only cell phone directories don't help much since they don't show the contact's relationship to the patient.

Emergency officials in our state are educating frontline workers about ICE, which caught on in England last summer after the London terrorist attacks. Qwest Communications, which serves 14 western states, already encourages its customers to enter ICE on their cell phones.

Ideally, an ICE entry in your cell phone directory will complement emergency contact information carried in your wallet next to your driver's license. It's best to have both in case your cell phone is destroyed in a crash, locked with a password, or lost.