cell phones and emergency situations

Cell Phones and Emergency SituationsHow a cell phone can save your life

The Delhi Rape Case• A 23 year old student boarded a private bus with a male friend

at about 9:15pm

• The bus was occupied by 6 other men who had been out on a joy ride and drinking heavily in the bus

• Soon, an argument took place between the couple and the six men

• The 6 men hit the male friend with an iron rod and threw him out of the bus

• They later took turns in raping the girl while the bus was still in motion. They later inserted a metal rod inside her, damaging her intestines

• They then threw the victim out of the bus and sped away

The Delhi Rape Case•This has disconcerted the entire nation

•People are now afraid of spending nights outside

•People now question the existing setup for security of women in the society

•There is a feeling of “this could happen to anybody, even me” in everybody’s minds

•She would never have thought that her life would thus change forever

How do I protect myself in case of unanticipated emergencies?

Let me help you with some tips from real people

The Late Night Traveler“I report to a US client because of which I often leave office very late in the night. At such times, I usually place a call to my friend who lives nearby. I keep updating him about my location at regular intervals. So should any untoward incident occur, he knows where to find me.”

-Alka Mujumdar

The Late Night Traveler“I have added my friends and family on Google Latitude and keep the automatic location updates on whenever I’m travelling late. That way, they constantly know where I am, and can detect if anything is amiss.”

- Akshara Mehta

The Late Night Traveler“My phone has an SOS feature wherein I can feed one number to call in case of an emergency. So, in case of an attack, all I have to do is press the volume key 4 times and the SOS number gets dialed automatically.”

-Nikita Shetty

“Once while travelling in a local at about 11 in Ladies compartment, a drunkard just barged in while the train halted at a station and started abusing. There were just 2-3 of us and I thankfully had the railway helpline number, so we called for help and immediately even the railway authorities took action and caught hold of that man.”

-Rajvi Deshpande

The Late Night Traveler

All Alone, Caught Off Gaurd“A 911 agent told me the story of a woman who had driven into a ravine, and placed an emergency call to 911 saying "I'm in my car and it's sinking." He said that these stories "make you thankful" for your cell phone.” 

-Eric Caldron

All Alone, Caught Off Gaurd“The cell phone, unlike the fixed line, offers multiple channels of communication. Voice calls, data connections (e-mail), and most importantly SMS. In a crisis, you can expect the volume of calls to spike, and networks to be clogged. SMS, at only 160 Bytes per message, can often slip through the congestion. During the recent Hurricane Ike, Texans made ample use of SMS as their only way of connecting somewhat reliably.”

-Eddy White

All Alone, Caught Off Gaurd“ In the event of a very local emergency, like a building collapse, a fault-line quake, fire, terrorist attack, etc, the landlines may be severed, but the cellular will easily connect you to base stations outside the trouble area, and onward.”

-Amol Deodhar, Mumbai Police

All Alone, Caught Off Gaurd“I need to often make trips to different cities during the night. Once I was on a particularly deserted patch on the highway when my car broke down. Using my phone’s GPS, I could locate the nearest mechanic and help arrived in less than an hour”

-Neeraj Sodhi

Baby’s Day Out“My child travels to and from school all by himself and I’m particularly concerned about his safety. I have installed the “Family Locator’ application, whereby I can know where my child is.”

-Rachel Newman

Baby’s Day Out“‘Chaperone 2.0’ helps me mark my daughter’s usual route on the map. If he strays away from this route, I am intimated by a text message.”

-Paula Smith

Emergency Numbers You Can Use

Police 100Fire 101Ambulance 102

Just Dial- 08888888888AskMe- 35555555

Women’s Helpline No. Mumbai- 1298Chandigarh- 1091Haryana- 81466 93100

Mumbai Railway Helpline- 22620800

Emergency Numbers You Can Use

Private services that provide phone numbers of local businesses. Could be used to locate the nearest mechanic, gas station, etc.

Links You Can Use• Some case studies of the use of cell phones in emergency

situations http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/about-diane/assets/disasterreport.pdf

• Toll Free Helpline Numbers of various Service providers http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-466.html

• Location-wise Senior Citizen Helpline Numbers http://dadadadi.org/senior-citizen-helpline.html

• Delhi Police Helpline Numbers for specific purposes  http://www.delhipolice.nic.in/parivartan/pcr.htm

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