The three-digit number of the North American Rescue Service has appeared in films, books, newspaper articles, Internet publications and has become for us almost the same symbol of the United States as the Statue of Liberty, Hollywood films and the famous drink. During my internship at Hastings College, every morning I was able to observe black pillars with blue flashing beacons dotted around the campus. With the help of these devices, you can call 911 even if the cell phone battery suddenly runs out. And perhaps, and if you suddenly forgot the emergency number in fear.
By the way, it is the stress experienced by a person in a critical situation that is the reason that the wording “nine-eleven” is never used. There were cases when frightened people could not find the “11” button on the phone keypad.
Until 2001, September 11 (9th month, 11th) was celebrated as the day of the Emergency Telephone Number, but the terrorist attack stopped the established tradition. One of the topics discussed in America today is the location of the caller. Before the ubiquitous distribution of mobile phones, this task was quite easy to solve with the help of automatic telephone exchange equipment, but the base stations of cellular operators do not allow accurate identification of the place of the call. One of the possible solutions is called the equipment of cell phones with GPS-modules, capable of informing the emergency operators of the latitude and longitude of the location of the person in need of help. And even if you have spent many years in America, you will never have to call 911 – except to ask you to remove a naughty cat from the tree.
