Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Emergency Contact Information

For once, I learned of something helpful. Not pleasant but may be helpful, God forbid, should such an emergency occur. And Yay! for Florida.

FL Dept of Highway safety has a website where you write who you want contacted in case you are in a wreck. I hope all other states have similar measures. If not, their residents should make them do it.

This reminds me, a few years back, of a friend who died in a wreck out of state. Everyone knew he was on vacation and nobody made much of his prolonged absence. His remains stayed in the morgue for 20 days, until someone searched for him.

It may be nothing that terrible, but suppose a medical decision needs to be made. Hence, in case you’re ever in a bad wreck, rescue officials want to make it easier to reach your family or friends. They want you to tell them beforehand who to call in case you can’t later. This can be done quickly and easily on their web site …

For Floridians: go to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Web site at http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/. Right on the homepage, there is an image of a phone and a link to enter “Emergency Contact Information.” Simply enter your driver’s license number and then put up to three phone numbers for each of two emergency contacts. According to Florida Highway Patrol, thousands of people have already done it. It takes about two minutes.