Dog Tags and Road ID
 

I am thinking of purchasing dog tags to wear while riding, I am going to get the tags attached to this link http://www.dogtagsonline.com/ Besides name address and emergency contacts what other info should I put on them, it looks like you get two tags with different info on each. Thank you

I'd put your Social Security Number, blood type, and if you can fit it, medical allergy info. I don't have any, so I put NO ALLERGIES on mine. I guess if you have some it could be tough to fit. All that information would be really helpful if you had to be taken to the hospital.

I was just thinking about this. I am not an EMT so I don't know what they do exactly but either dog tags or RoadID assume that the EMTs actually look at it.

I printed up a small card (business card size) using micro printing, and it has all my vital information and emergency contact information, also a 'who to contact first in case I'm found dead'. I'd rather have a parent break the news to my wife and child then some hospital staffer. I laminated it, and I carry it with my driver's license, medical insurance card and $20 with my cell phone in my jersey pocket. The cell might be destroyed in a crash, but I really don't like anything jangling around my neck.

If you get dog tags, get some dog tag silencers for them. They're rubber grommets that fit around the tag and keep them from clinking together. Sold at any uniform shop or Army/Navy store. Bonus points: They were designed for Special Forces!

I've heard (I think on BF) that EMTs are trained to look for ID around someone's neck and that they would be more likely to find that than ID in a jersey pocket or saddle bag. Now I'm not an EMT either, so I don't know how true this is, and to be honest, seems kind of far-fetched to me, seeing that there aren't many people who wear ID around their neck. I wear my dogtags AND have my driver's license in my seat bag. The dogtags have more info on them than my ID, like blood type and emergency contact info.

Why wouldn't they look at it? That's what dog tags are for.

I used to ride with an actual bone shaped dog tag around my neck with all my info printed on it. I wear them because whenever I grab my license to put in my jersey pocket, the next time I needed my license it's it would still be there.

I have made up some waterproof labels that have all the relevant details and one is stuck inside my helmet.

I have a copy of my license and insurance card laminated together
that I wear when I'm riding, that's the only ID that I carry other than
contact info in my saddlebag.

marty

Check to see if you have any military surplus stores near you, you could get dogtags made there cheaper. I would put any allergy info, blood type if you know it, and what med. insurance group you belong to aside from your name and emergency contacts.

The wife and I have these:

http://www.roadid.com/id.asp#shoe

Kind of spendy, but they're fairly easy to spot and we haven't had any trouble with them getting in the way or causing any problems.

Cheers.

Bigger pet stores can make dog tags for you for a few dollars each. Those RoadID products are a little nicer looking, but much more expensive and no more functional.

With the tags at petstores I think you don't get as much space to put info on, but I'm really not sure. The tags I have allowed for 5 lines with 15 characters on each line (spaces included). The nice things about the road ID is that they have more space for info (6 lines, 20 characters I think), but I didn't need that much info so the cheaper tags are good enough for me.

Do you all wear these while driving a car, too? You do know it's somewhere in the realm of 100 times more dangerous than riding a bike, right?

You may want to consider MedicAlert www.medicalert.org. It costs $20 per year and you can get an inexpensive dog tag. I have it because I have a medical condition but I think it would be a good idea even if you do not.

You can update your info on the internet any time, so, lets say, you have to take a medication short term you can add it. It also has emergency info like who to contact, the name(s) of you doctors and phone numbers, insurance info., medical history (and maybe a few other things I'm forgetting) Best of all its not all on you ID so the info stays confidential.

Its also widely regonized by emergency personnel.

Bill

yeah but most people carry wallet with ID or something in a car.
It isn't an issue of safety (car vs bike) but an issue of ID while on a bike
with limited carrying space.

There is another thread on this over on advocacy and safety: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=194610

As noted in that thread, I carry a laminated business card with my home contact info on the back. At least back in the day when I was doing the paramedic thing, we didn't routinely check for hidden dog tags. Perhaps the state of the art is different now. I will say, however, that for a female patient, I would only check in the presence of my partner or if the patient was conscious. And if they are conscious and alert, you can just ask them. I can see where unzipping the jersey or fishing around in the sports bra of a female rider, without an obvious clinical reason, such as an injury to the torso, could easily be miscontrued by the patient or onlookers, and could lead to 'inappropriate contact' complaints and disciplinary action. Although this may sound ridiculous to some, it is the sort of thing that healthcare providers have to be cautious about.

My other comments in terms of notification, etc. can be found in the other thread.

Cashiers at MOST retail stores are trained to check ID before accepting a credit card. How often have you been checked? Cashiers where I live make $7-15 per hour, EMTs make $8. All we can do is hope.

While an EMT may or may not check for a dog tag or other ID, the hospital surely will. I regularly see newspaper or TV news reports asking for help in identifying an unconcious cyclist or pedestrian who wasn't carrying any ID. An ID could save your family days of anxiety and it could also help the hospital contact your doctor for a medical history, etc.

Good point. That was kind of our thought on why we'd wear these things. We're also both donors, so that info is available, too.

i wear the roadID dog tag when i ride....

No social security numbers on dogtags. That is not information that will either keep you alive or notify your family.

Well it's just one more piece of information that could prove useful for hospital personnel, if for some reason they desperately need more info than is on that dog tag.

I agree that SS number is not important. More important is phone numbers for family members who can authorize surgery. Drug allergies and blood type are useful. If you're afraid that hospitals will bounce you if you don't have insurance, then put your insurance company name on there, too.

If you die you die, why would you care what happens to you afterwords??

If I were to buy a set of dogtags, noting that they can accommodate five lines of fifteen characters each, here is what I would put on mine:

Name
City, State USA
H: 123-456-7890
W: 123-456-7890
NKA/NKDA/A POS

This provides the immediate notification and medical information required: Name, location, home phone, work phone and no known allergies, no known drug allergies and blood type. Clearly, you would have to change the clinical information on the last line to fit you.

Insurance is not required. Hospitals in the USA operate under a Federal law called EMTALA: emergency medical treatment and active labor act. This requires a hospital to provide immediately necessary emergency treatment regardless of insurance status and ability to pay. Social security numbers are generally not used in medical treatment except as a patient identifier, insurance number or medical record number. I would not include my SSN due to the identity theft issue.

And by way of background, I worked as a paramedic in college and now work in healthcare administration. The two primary things the ER or EMS people need to know is how to contact the patient's family, and allergies. Blood type is nice to have but a type and crossmatch test does not take very long, and they can always give you O negative in a critical emergency, although the concept of O negative being a universal donor is falling out of favor.