Trapped on a capsizing 8-foot fiberglass dingy floundering in 33-degree waters off New York, Henry Badillo used his cell phone to make a desperate plea for help.

"We're taking in water.... We're on the Long Island Sound in a boat off the coast of City I ... oh, my God, we're going to die!" Badillo screamed in his 12-second call to a 911 emergency services operator on Jan. 24, 2003.

Badillo, stranded on the boat with three friends, didn't have time to say exactly where he was before the call cut off, and the operator did not clearly hear his reference to City Island, which could have helped to pinpoint the boat's location.

The operator and her supervisor decided they didn't have enough information to request assistance. Badillo and his friends died that night.

Their parents believe they might have been rescued if New York's 911 system was able to trace cell-phone callers' locations, a service that the state has been collecting taxes to implement for more than a decade.

Since 1991 New York state has collected at least $200 million from a surcharge added to every New Yorker's cell-phone bill. The money is earmarked for installing an "E911" service, which uses GPS technology to quickly trace the location of 911 callers on their cell phones.

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