In the event of an emergency, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) has provided an option for Floridians to enter their emergency contact information into the DHSMV emergency contact information system. This system allows Floridians to voluntarily provide emergency information online, giving law enforcement instant access to speak with someone quicker in case an emergency arises.
This system came to take form after Tiffany Olson was involved in a car accident on U.S. 19 in Manatee County, Fl. Olson received fatal injuries when the motorcycle she was a passenger on collided with another vehicle.
Christine, Olson's mother, was not notified of her daughter's death for several hours and was heartbroken; she found an opportunity in tragedy and began pushing for emergency information to be added to a person's driver's license or identification card.
However, since the information could not be printed directly on a license due to safety reasons, the DHSMV decided to have information included in the Driver And Vehicle Information Database (D.A.V.I.D) system, which is a secure databases implemented by most law enforcement agencies in the State of Florida.
Christine Olson also began a non-profit organization called To Inform Families First, which is dedicated to promoting emergency contact registration. Over 10,000,000 have registered and is currently used in six different states, including Florida, Colorado, New Jersey, Illinois and Ohio.
Entering your emergency contact information is quick and easy and will save crucial time if it ever becomes necessary to contact family members or other members in the event of an emergency.
Enroll online by going to https://services.flhsmv.gov/eci/. Once at the website, provide your current Florida driver license or ID number and your date of birth. A new page will load once the information entered is processed and you will be able to enter your emergency contact name and number.
If you have already added emergency contact information when you first obtained your license, entering any new contact information will overwrite the previous information provided.
If you have never added any emergency contact information, now is the perfect time to do so and prepare yourself for the future if an emergency occurs.