I overhead a somewhat sad story this afternoon about a person who was injured and unconscious in a crash. (One of) the initial instincts of the people who can to assist (after summoning help) was to see if there was emergency contact info on or about the person.

They checked the cell phone of the injured person and found the usual list of random contact names - none were labeled obviously to indicate who to contact.

The person talking stated that it was probably a good idea to put a contact labeled ‘emergency’ in the cell phone, and that few people would think of doing that. I concurred it was a good idea and I put a contact labelled ‘emergency’ in the family cell phones shortly thereafter.

Emergency contact info in your wallet or purse is obviously a great idea as well. Putting it in your cell phone is not a substitute for that.

razr

One hint - depending on how the cell phone orders or labels the contact in the directory, you might find the cell phone displays ‘emergency’ for the same name that is one that is often dialed in non-emergencies. While not a huge deal, it’s a bit annoying. You may need to alphabetize the emergency contact with or without a starting special character to avoid this behavior.