JohnJ80

Yep. RoadID is a great idea and I wear one all the time. You can have your wallet with you but all that gives 1st responders and the ER is your name and address. With RoadID you can give them your whole medical history, any allergies, drug allergies, medical conditions, next of kin who can make medical decisions for you - all very useful. The assumption that if you are hurt that you would be conscious or even lucid is a bad one that may not end well for you.


J.

PlanoFuji

The bolded section is simply false... Though I suspect his confusion/mistatement is caused by his CHL. If you are carrying a gun, then (and only then) is his statement correct. But in that case it is correct in all of the other states that allow CHL as well...

PlanoFuji

A few years ago I had a crash that left me unconscious/delirious on the side of the road. A good Samaritan called an ambulance that took me to the hospital. I did not have any id and was told I wasn't making any sense...

However, a few hours after my arrival, they confirmed my name and insurance information... Didn't seem to affect anything. The Samaritan came to the hospital to see how I was and told me that I was telling her and the EMT's that I did not want treatment... They provided such anyway... That is why I have a road id. And it states that I refuse medical treatment...

alhedges

You do have the right to refuse treatment, but a road ID bracelet by itself won't be enough. The precise requirements vary from state to state, but carrying a DPA or similar legal document might be enough; you may need to file something similar with local hospitals.

JohnJ80

You do have the right to refuse treatment, but if you are obviously brain injured or incoherent, then that may not mean much. I'm a ski patroller and that happens relatively often. What our protocol then is to call LE and they make the call if the patient is dingy and we can't get anyone on the line to help. They have authority to cut through a lot of that problem.

Either way, they won't do anything other than life saving treatment until they get someone who can answer for you and has the standing to do so. It's important to get someone who can answer for you in touch with the ER people as soon as possible.

I just went through this about two years ago. My son had a bad ski crash that almost killed him. He was unconscious, unresponsive and had to be intubated, sedated, etc... before they could get in contact with us. We had an 8 hour drive to get there (done in 6 at high speed) and had little contact with the med staff at the level 2 trauma center where he had been taken. Our first contact with the medical team was probably 3-4 hours after he arrived there at which time he had been put on a ventilator, had received many drugs, had at least one CT scan and was in the ICU where they were contemplating a cranial pressure monitor. All of this without any next of kin authorization because it was all necessary to save his life (they did, and he is fine now after a whole lot of rehab). I think that's a good illustration of what will happen in the ER.

That all said, there were a number of things that they didn't do that they would have had they been in contact with us earlier. Getting the contact information for them was tricky and would have been much easier had he had a med-alert tag or a RoadID on him. As it was, he had no information on him because he was race training and in a speed suit.

I can also tell you that from my ski patroller experience, we have often sent people off to trauma centers without knowing who they are because they had no ID with them. You can't always find an injured's friends or family in a big ski area in the time it takes for a load and go rescue. That means that we, the ambulance (fire department operated) and the ER staff all spend a LOT of time trying to figure out who that patient is and it does hold up treatment besides being a huge waste of time. This is not the task you want your medical team or rescuers wasting their time on, believe me - it hurts your care and can delay it.

So if you want to streamline your treatment, then something like a RoadID will do it. If not at the trauma scene, when your clothes and jewelry is removed or cut off of you in the ER. They don't miss much and they'll find it. So, up to you - personally, I want the fewest delays and the most opportunities for me and my family to receive maximum care in a trauma situation. RoadID for the $20 (or whatever it is) does that.


J.

MAK

For all the people who carry their wallet and don't need the Road ID...Do you carry spouse/children's phone numbers in the wallet? My kids are grown and I live alone. If they call my house they'd get my answering machine. Yes, I carry my phone, etc. but phones can break or fall out of pockets in crashes. You may disagree, but in my opinion it's $20.00 well spent.

the sci guy 

yeah the main reason i'd want one is for the emergency contact info and medical alerts.
when commuting and when just on a pleasure ride, i carry my license, credit card, and $20 cash in a money clip in my saddle bag or trunk bag. but that doesn't tell them my allergies or who they're gonna call. (ghostbusters, obvi)

RGNY

getting back into the habit of wearing mine. it was with me, but had been stuffed in a pocket on my messenger bag and forgotten.

have: name, town, home #, wife's name and cell #, "NKA" and Organ Donor on it.

most of the time i don't have a wallet or other i.d.. i commute to a secure facility where anything with personal information aside from your issued i.d. is contraband.

salek

Responding to the "displaced Texan". My comment was not hyperbole. Actually, it is in the Texas Law to have an ID when off of your property. Class C misdemeanor. I have loaned out my Blue Book, otherwise, I would look up and quote the section. I needed to know it 20 years ago when I was managing a C-store. It was somewhere near the section that stating that it is also a Class C to alter a real ID or to possess a fake one. It helps to know that sort of thing when you are selling beer at work.
"Do you really want to make a fuss about me not selling to you? Let's get the police interested in your section 6667 fake id. Otherwise, be quiet and leave the premises."
Now the fun part is that in the last 20 years, a lot of changes have been made to various Texas Codes so the section numbers may have changed. For example TPC S46.02 was effectively orphaned by becoming unnumbered though it is still enforcable law.
As mentioned before, I have duma$$ed and left the house without my wallet. Thus, I have my license numbers on my helmet. I can at least look at the officer, admit the mistake and offer the ability to verify my identity by looking up the numbers from my helmet.

baron von trail 

Carry my wallet in the fannie pack strapped to my aerobars. I've needed the green stuff stuffed inside that sucker on more than one occasion. I figure the credit cards and ID cards would be pretty handy too if SHTF.

PlanoFuji

Care to provide a legal citation for that claim? I'm willing to bet you will not (you could look up online) since you are obviously confusing other statutes. Presenting legal id to purchase alcohol is an entirely different issue. In texas, when being arrested (and only upon arrest) are you required to inform a police officer of your name, address, etc... Even then you are not required to have id, unless your driving a motor vehicle (or purchasing alcohol)...

PlanoFuji

Doesn't everyone have such information in their wallet (and phone)?

the sci guy 

i don't. my wallet has license, credit cards, grocery club cards, health / car insurance cards, and almost never any cash
i like to carry as little as possible. i'm not a subscriber to the george constanza wallet club

PlanoFuji

Free piece of paper (which will always be with you outside of home) or a $15+ dollar bracelet that you might not have... To each their own.

BTW, you don't carry a phone either?

baron von trail 

Phone is a huge must during any long commute. Of course, I use my phone once I get to work, so I take it no matter what. But, even if I did not need it for work, the phone would be super critical if shtf.

the sci guy 

well the whole purpose of medical ID bracelets, and this Road ID is so that people who find you, be in pedestrians or first responders, can find that info quick - they know exactly where to look - instead of "roll him over lets get to his wallet and sift through these tiny pieces of paper to find the information we need."

I'm pretty conscious about what I take with me on every ride or commute - double check the night before, and double check in the morning before i head out to make sure I have everything. I've very OCD and have an in-mind checklist. Plus, something like the ID bracelet would never leave the proximity of my bike. It'd either be in my trunk bag, or my saddle bag, ready to go.

and yes i carry a phone. on my commute it's in my trunk bag. again - not someplace a rescuer is going to look. It does have an ICE contact entry, but like I said, that info is right on the bracelet, name & #, without having to scroll through my phones address book, etc.
on weekend pleasure rides, my phone is in my saddle bag.

PlanoFuji

I don't think I was clear about my intent when I related my tale of my accident. I had my phone in my seatbag. I had no other id with me... When I became conscious and lucid, they already knew my name and insurance information. I later asked how they obtained that information. They retrieved my name from my phone and simply checked it against the popular insurance companies...

Why did they make that effort? To get PAID... I'll rely on that motivation over the likelihood that they would read a bracelet.... Of course, if they get around to reading mine, they will note that it says I refuse medical attention... Oh, I also suspect that my bike was transported with me to the hospital in part because they hoped to find some way to id me on it...

JohnJ80

Two comments:

1. I don't know anyone who carries their complete medical history in their wallet or even can. You can do that with RoadID and that is a big benefit to medical personnel if you are not lucid. I'd be interested how you do provide your medical history in your wallet and how you expect the 1st responders to find it.

2. 1st responders are trained to look for medic alert tags and one rescuer can do that. They are also trained to not go through someone's wallet unless there is a witness (for obvious reasons) so that takes at least two rescuers and subsequent documentation. Medic alert tags are typically sought in the initial and secondary assessments whereas a wallet is not. They are not going to be looking in your wallet for your medial history and, truthfully, the thought would never cross my mind as a 1st responder.

J.

phughes

The "law" regarding carrying ID is not really as portrayed by this statement, "In Texas, you MUST have your legal id to get off of your property"


The law referred to here is a stop and identify statute, and not just Texas has it, and you won't be arrested, can't be arrested if you don't have ID. You may be detained until your identity can be confirmed, but you cannot be arrested unless it is determined you have committed a crime, and not carrying an ID is not a crime. You also won't be randomly stopped and asked for identification, the officer will have some reason to stop you. The usual caveats apply to my last statement.

A snippet regarding Texas's statute, "Texas’s law requires a person to provide their name, residence address and date of birth if lawfully arrested and asked by police. (A detained person or witness of a crime is not required to provide any identifying information, however it is a crime for a detained person or witness to give a false name.):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes#States_with_.E2.80.9Cstop-and-identify.E2.80.9D_statutes

PlanoFuji

If one has conditions that require medical history to be provided, then a road id (or simple dog tag) can easily provide it. For most a wallet (which they would already have--this is a commuting forum) is certainly acceptible. Include a card with any contact information required and even the road id medical feature; www.someinternetaddress.com username:somename password:somepassword....

There is nothing wrong with a road id, but there is nothing magical about it either. I frankly doubt that any medical professionals would rely on any 'medical records' they obtained from it, except for things like allergies so complete medical history is of dubious value.

And as I said, those 'medical professionals' had no problem going through my belongings to find out who I was and more importantly how they were going to get paid... The latter is all the motivation we really need to rely on.

etw

Same here. I like the added security, just in case. As I tell people, I hope I never need it.

JohnJ80

Please read again what I wrote.

Most 1st responders - paramedics, police, ski patrollers, fire depts, rescue - could care less if you are or are not insured since they will treat you exactly the same either way. In point of fact many of them will never be paid to rescue you no matter what. They will , if they can, provide a more complete characterization of you condition depending on what they find out about you. Your condition may be very congruent with medical history they discover about you that would have been confusing otherwise. Things like diabetes, history of past injury, allergies all play into the effort of figuring out what happened - and is happening - to an unconscious patient. It also will impact treatment choices. They won't give you, for example, an specific anticoagulant if they have reason to believe you are allergic to it. They will select another and then they will watch you closely.

Finally on history, they absolutely will take that as important. Where do you think they get their history from if you where lucid? They ask you.

And the big thing is the rescuers will attempt to contact next of kin as soon as possible which WILL have a lot to do with expediting your care. The extent that they have to spend time looking for that is directly going to slow that process down.

If you want to rely on waiting until you get to the hospital and letting someone in the billing dept figure it out - good luck with that one. That's just about the most circuitous and time consuming way possible. Me? I'd like to have the police or ambulance dispatch calling me as they depart from the scene to the ER. I've seen far too many instances where it's taken hours to get in touch with someone - sometimes to even figure out who they are- that I want that information attached to my body (and there are numerous ways of doing that). Just because they know who you are doesn't mean they know who to call and that can be a very big problem.

buffalowings

I'm a diabetic, but if I fall comatose, just leave me on the streets. Honestly..my life isn't worth a road ID bracelet especially considering how my insurance battle is coming along with the insurance company.

bigbenaugust 

I ride with a RoadID at my ankle. On a commute, everything else is in my bags. On an extremely-rare recreational ride, if my wallet isn't in the trunk bag, it will be in my jersey.
In fact, I need a new metal plate, as all of the phone numbers are right but the city I live in is wrong.

Jseis 

I carry an expired driver license with phone contact info on back. I rubber band that to my cell phone and its in a back jersey pocket. Expired license means its got a small hole punched in it but it has photo ID with address, drivers license number, organ donor stamp, etc.

I'm going to order a road ID though...just makes sense and in an accident..the phone could fly out of my pocket. BTW, old school motorcyclists typically added blood type, contact info on their helmets.