Top Transportation Dept. officials, including Secy. Norman Mineta...

spoke at E911 summit in Arlington, Va. Mon. “Events of Sept. 11 highlight the need to be able to quickly and precisely locate people when they make 911 calls on cellular phones,” Mineta said. “When people are injured, response time is critical in determining survivability, and bringing experts together like this will help expedite deployment of wireless E911.” Summit participants included representatives of CTIA, Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials International, National Assn. of State 911 Administrators, FCC, International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, National Governors Assn., National Conference of State Legislatures. Mineta convened E911 summit and gave keynote lunch speech. CTIA said summit’s Wireless E911 Steering Council called for implementation of programs for model location, knowledge transfer and outreach. “Establishing statewide representatives to coordinate E911 implementation will help the wireless industry get the job done,” CTIA spokeswoman said. Industry source said Mineta’s comments focused, in part, on 40,000 lives lost on roadways each year and extent to which broader E911 deployment could help mitigate highway accidents. Model program to which summit participants committed would involve up to 8 states, as yet unnamed, source said. Program would focus on rapid deployment of E911 programs in those states, which could provide lessons learned for states whose rollouts weren’t as far along, source said.