Friday, February 23, 2007

[Chaptzem Blog!] 2/23/2007 09:28:00 AM

GOV GETS AN EARFUL ON CELL PHONE ABSENCE TRAGEDY FROM ORTHODOX BLOGGERS

Orthodox Jews are responding in big numbers to bloggers' calls to ring up Gov. Spitzer's office and demand better cellphone service on a remote upstate highway where a Brooklyn man died last month after he was unable to call for help.

A Spitzer spokesman said yesterday the office has gotten a "substantial" number of calls about cell service on the stretch of Interstate 87 known as the Northway, where Alfred Langner, 63, died of hypothermia after a car accident Jan. 25.

Langner, an Orthodox Jew, and his wife were trapped in their car for 24 hours because they could not use their cellphone to call for help.

An organizer of an Orthodox news and discussion Web site said he believes more than 1,000 people will have called Spitzer by today.

But Adirondack Park Agency officials say the cell-tower shortage is really a matter of phone-company economics.

The agency in 2002 approved 33 cell towers on the Northway stretch, but the projects are considered unprofitable, spokesman Keith McKeever said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02232007/news/regionalnews/gov_gets_an_earful_on_tragedy_regionalnews_bill_sanderson.htm

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Posted By Chaptzem to Chaptzem Blog! at 2/23/2007 09:28:00 AM