Palm Beach Traffic Lawyer – Florida Drivers Not Making Next-of-Kin Information Available

Despite the fact that Florida drivers were given the option to include emergency contact information for two people on their driver’s license starting in 2006, law enforcement officials say many drivers are not using this option simply because they don’t know about it. Of Florida’s 15.5 million registered drivers, only 2.3 million of them have taken part in the program.

Florida state troopers, deputies, and police always try to notify the families of car accident victims as soon as they can, but sometimes they cannot track down next-of-kin for hours or even days because the information in not available or up-to-date. They often try to find relatives using license plate or driver’s license numbers to look up the address of the injured person and sometimes this information is out-dated, costing the police officer (and the family) valuable time.

Tiff’s Initiative was named for Tiffany Olson, who was killed in a December 2005 motorcycle crash. Officer’s could not notify Olson’s family for several hours because there was no contact information. This information could also be useful in instances where the victim cannot speak or where the victim has Alzheimer’s and cannot provide accurate contact information.

For more information on registering your emergency contact information to Florida’s database, check out the Florida Highway Patrol website.

Drivers aren’t making next-of-kin contact information available, South Florida Sun Sentinel, July 15, 2009
Contact a Broward traffic lawyer.