Published on Friday, October 13, 2006
in the WESH News

Floridians Can Tie Emergency Contact Info. To Driver's Licenses

A new system at the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles will help police notify your loved ones immediately if you're in an accident.

A special link on the state's Web site lets you tie emergency contact information to your driver's license or state-issued identification card, WESH 2 News reported.

Floridians can type in up to two emergency contacts, with their home addresses, phone numbers, work numbers and cell numbers.

Police said it will save them critical time.

"We've had to work with our dispatch to make phone calls, to call around the state, to call local law enforcement agencies and exhaust all the contacts that we have in order to make these next-of-kin notifications. And it's taken a lot of time," said Cpl. Timothy Roufa of the Florida Highway Patrol. "They can take three, four, five hours, sometimes longer before we can get somebody on that doorstep to make that notification, and obviously, we want to be able to do that a lot quicker than that."

Officials said they think Florida is one of the first states in the country to digitally tie emergency contact numbers to driver's licenses and identification cards.

The state now issues cards for children as young as 5 years old, and emergency contact information can be added for them, too.

To get started, visit www.flhsmv.gov , click onto Emergency Contact Information and enter the license or identification number.