Drivers Aren’t Making Next-of-kin Contact Information Available
Option passed in 2006 would make it easier for authorities to find loved ones after accidents
By C. Ron Allen South Florida Sun-SentinelJuly 15 2009

According to Maria Gallegos’driver’s license, she lived in Miami.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers investigating a fatal crash in Lantana on Saturday night thought her next of kin would be at that address. But they later found out her address was incorrect and her relatives lived in Delray Beach.

“When we pulled her driver’s license [record], it had no emergency contact on it,” said FHP Lt. Tim Frith, adding that investigators learned of the relative’s address from friends. It saved troopers hours by not having to look for her next of kin in Miami.

“However it could have done in a more expedient manner if that information had been provided,” Frith said.

Since Floridians were given the option of putting emergency contact information for two people in their driver’s license or state-issued identification card records in 2006, only 2.3 million of the state’s 15.5 million registered drivers have taken part.

Troopers, deputies and police often try to find family members by using license plates and driver’s licenses to look up the addresses of injured people. When the information is incorrect, outdated or no one else lives at the address, it can take officials hours or even days to locate family, they said.

Law enforcement and state officials say a license emergency contact number will allow law enforcement agencies and hospitals to quickly notify families in case of accidents. This would save time and anguish for families.

“In a crisis situation, having information available to a law enforcement officer so that one can be contacted means the difference of being able to say goodbye or not,” said state Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, who worked with the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to launch the Emergency Contact Information System, dubbed Tiff’s initiative.

“From a parent’s or spouse perspective, it is a great tool for law enforcement but also a real benefit to a loved one in a tragic situation or crisis,” he said.

The emergency database was named after Tiffiany Olson, 22, who, along with her boyfriend, Dustin Wilder, was killed in a motorcycle crash in December 2005.

According to Frith, law enforcement officials could not reach Olson’s mother, Christine, and Wilder’s family in Bradenton for hours after the wreck because they did not have any contact information.

Christine Olson searched every hospital in Manatee County for her daughter after hearing about the crash from a friend. Two hours later, she arrived at Manatee Memorial Hospital and a trooper handed her a bag with her daughter’s jewelry and told her Tiffiany’s body was already at the medical examiner’s office.

The database may also be invaluable where someone with Alzheimer’s disease might have trouble giving police accurate contact information, Frith said.

The data goes into the state’s secure driver’s license database, which only law enforcement officials can access, said Ann Nucatola, a spokeswoman for the DHSMV. Out-of-state police officers also can retrieve that information through data that’s listed on the license’s bar code, she said. For drivers who still have the old, laminated driver’s licenses, the information must be entered manually.

That less than 15 percent of the state’s licensed motorists are registered does not surprise law enforcement officials.

“So many people don’t know about it,” said Frith, who has been promoting the option every opportunity he gets. “It’s like the inception of the Move Over law. It all started in 2001-2002. Still, you’ll stop people and they’ll say, ‘I don’t know anything about the Move Over law.’ “

C. Ron Allen can be reached at crallen@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6611. Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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