The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles provides a valuable service called Emergency Contact Information. The contact information you provide at the website is attached to your driver’s license info in the Driver And Vehicle Information Database so the right people have access to it if the need arises.
I had no idea this was available until last week, but have already listed my contacts. It’s a concept born of a mother’s grief.

On December 7, 2005, the life of Christine Olson was changed forever. Christine’s daughter Tiffiany Olson was involved in a traffic crash on U.S. 19 in Manatee County, Florida. Tiffiany received fatal injuries when the motorcycle she was a passenger on collided with another vehicle. Mrs. Olson was not notified of Tiffiany’s passing for several hours and was not able to say her last goodbyes. Mrs. Olson was heartbroken. She then found the silver lining to an otherwise dark cloud. Mrs. Olson, with the assistance of State Representative Bill Galvano from Bradenton District 68, began pushing for emergency information to be added to a person’s driver’s license.

Mrs. Olson and her family and DHSMV are urging all licensed drivers in the State of Florida to input their information so families can be contacted more quickly when a family member is seriously injured or killed in a traffic crash. Mrs. Olson and her family have struggled to make emergency information readily available for law enforcement and her efforts have paid off so far. There have been thousands of hits to the website in the short period of time it has been active.

It’s also a good idea to include an I.C.E. [In Case of Emergency]number in your cellphone. Could be your spouse, parent, best friend…