Lack of Governance Kills
CELLPHONE TECHNOLOGY
Lost man called 911 four times before dying in sub-zero conditions
This story in this morning's Globe & Mail is a tragedy, but it is also about malfeasance.Not that anyone in office cares much, but the role of governments is governance.
The CRTC blithely hands out licences to print money by granting cellular phone companies the right to sell their devilish little toys, but what do they ask of these hucksters in the way of social responsibility?
Nothing, apparently.
Now we are being told, the cell corps have until 2011 to ramp up their 911 capabilities.
Nice.
Today's story is hardly unique. This has been a growing file of deaths over recent weeks due to police and emergency teams being unable to track callers.
This should have been written into the original green lights, and now that the government has been woken from their slumber by the press - the Globe, in particular - the remedies should be fast-tracked.
The remedies are not the deepest rocket science and 3 months to comply would be more appropriate.
3 comments:
Another black mark against the RCMP, how many can they stand?
newer phones have a GPS feature which can be turned on all times by the user.
Recently, rescue crews were able to locate the body of a skier buried by a snowslide from his cellphone's GPS.
Most users are unaware, or don't bother to turn this feature on.
I leave mine turned on.
I'm not quite sure why the RCMP are to blame in this one (according to anonymous).
It seems that it is the CRTC that has allowed cell phone use to take over (while forgetting about the need for emergency services)
I personally have found out how complicated it is to describe where I am (not in familiar surroundings)while using my cellphone on a 9-1-1 call.
9-1-1 operators aren't psychic.
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