No signal wouldn't matter.
You can still pull up the directory on most cell phones without a signal.
To the best of my knowledge, no one is saying that it should REPLACE an ID card in the wallet. Only supplement it.
Of course, you could always get chipped.
Wouldn't that be a sign of the End Times?
James
I have been on the local fire department for the last 13 years, and I can tell you that we don't waste time looking for cell phones. The cops or the tow truck driver might get it after we leave but we don't have the time to look for it. We also don't go through people's personal efffects on the way to the hospital, the hosplital personell can take on that liability if they choose.
Every phone has its own little operating system, and people forget how hard it is to pick up some random phone and find a refference in the directory. Really, contacting loved ones is going to be the responsibility of the hospital rather than EMS anyways, and they *might* go through a phone, eventually. But they are more likely to look for entries under "Mom" or "Dad" than anything else.