Political inertia can be deadly. The latest victim of this truism is a Borough Park man who froze to death last month after a car accident on a stretch of upstate highway in a cell-phone “dead zone.”

Driving back from a Montreal wedding, 63-year-old Alfred Langner veered off the road in North Hudson, Essex County, shortly after 1 a.m.

His wife, Barbara, whose back was broken in the accident, dialed 911 repeatedly. But political squabbles have kept down the number of cell-phone towers along the stretch of Interstate 87 that slices through the Adirondacks. The result: Spotty service – or none at all.

With below-zero temperatures, Langner succumbed to hypothermia about 13 hours after the accident.

Another 21 hours later, his wife was rescued after a state trooper noticed the car, which was down an embankment and screened from the highway by trees.

“This could have been prevented,” said state Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury), who represents North County. She blames environmentalists for the area’s lack of cell-phone coverage: “The environmentalists say that cell-phone towers spoil the view, but if we had them, this man’s life could have been saved,” Little said.

Greens, in turn, blame cell-phone companies.

Such squabbles, now that a man’s life has been lost, suddenly appear particularly petty. What’s needed is leadership, not finger-pointing.

In an era of instant digital communication, allowing a vast, oft-traversed stretch to remain cut off from cell coverage borders on the unimaginable.

Waiting any longer to install towers would be unforgivable.