9-1-1 �� sort of - calling CSP to contact Coloraado State Police

It was just about "Midnight at the Oasis" (well, an hour north of Denver, anyway) on a summer's Friday evening. My family and I were traveling northbound on 1-25 to Cheyenne, Wyo., when "my head grew heavy and my sight grew dim." Okay, enough from the pop charts of the 1970s--we almost were to the place where we planned to stop for the night.

My wife and children were dozing while I pressed on, trying to stay awake. Suddenly, I noticed an unusual set of lights on the right side of our van. A large truck was entering the freeway at a high rate of speed and was headed right at us. I swerved rapidly to the left to avoid a collision and let out a screech.

I watched sickeningly in my rearview mirror as the truck headed southbound on the freeway--into oncoming traffic. By now, my wife and kids were awake, and, as I explained what had happened, my wife grabbed her cell phone. "We've got to do something," she said. "But whom do we call?"

My mind flashed back to three weeks earlier when a Coast Guard rescue team had given a water-safety presentation at our squadron safety stand-down. They had talked about their response time to the scene of an accident.

"We could have been there sooner and possibly could have saved the kid's life if we had been called directly," said a rescue swimmer. "However, a nearby fisherman used his cell phone to call 9-1-1 and got the county sheriff--not a bad idea--but he could have called '#CG' or '*CG' and gotten the Coast Guard area station. Most cell phones have this service available."

As a regular cell-phone user, I had found that information interesting but doubted it ever would apply to me since I didn't have a boat.

"Try *CSP," I told my wife.

"Who is that?" she asked.

I explained it might be the Colorado State Police. She shot me a curious look but tried my suggestion, and it worked. A CSP dispatcher answered the phone just as if it was a 9-1-1 emergency call. We explained where we were by noting mile markers and freeway exit signs; we also gave the dispatcher the time of the incident.

"We have someone just south of you right now," replied the dispatcher. With that exchange, we crossed into Wyoming, relieved that we may have prevented a tragedy. I don't know if this system works with all cell phones or whom you'll get if you dial *ISP as you near bordering Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, but my guess had paid off this time.

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