More than 83,000 calls were made to 911 from wireless telephones every day last year, according to figures released by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
During 1996, wireless phone calls to 911 dispatchers averaged 59,180 per day.
CTIA highlighted safety as one of its themes last week during Wireless ’98 in Atlanta. The association addressed both the use of wireless phones as a safety device and the safe use of wireless phones.
“Time is tissue,” said Dr. Ricardo Martinez, administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and founder of the ComCare Alliance, which promotes a comprehensive end-to-end communications system to enhance public safety. “Wireless has expanded America’s safety net. We can bring the medical system to the bedside, to the home, to the street or to the playground.”
Martinez said government entities should work collectively with public-health and safety groups and the wireless industry to enhance transportation safety. Representatives from the medical community-including Dr. Richard Hunt, American College of Emergency Physicians; Sue Hoyt, past president of the Emergency Nurses Association; and S. Robert Miller, director of the Office of Emergency Telecommunications Services for the State of New Jersey-joined Martinez in urging the wireless industry and public-safety agencies to work together.
Hunt described a situation early in his career when a woman involved in a car accident was thought to need nothing more than stitches, but while she was being treated, her conditioned worsened. The woman had a ruptured spleen and liver and nearly died. Hunt said a system that could relay crash data to emergency rooms would have keyed doctors in to the severity of the crash and the amount of time the woman had been waiting for treatment in order to better diagnose her condition.
