February 10, 2003

Reed City - In light of a recent fatal car crash in which a surviving child was unable to be identified for several hours, the Michigan State Police are encouraging parents to place a "Kids Identity Sticker" on their child’s safety seat.

Last week, troopers from the Reed City Post responded to a car crash in Osceola County involving a young mother and her six-month-old son. The mother, who was not wearing her seatbelt, did not survive the crash. Her son, the only other occupant in the car, was uninjured; however, it took troopers several hours to confirm a next of kin for the child.

"Because we knew nothing about this child, we encountered obstacles with both the hospital and the foster care system, until we were able to obtain a court order," stated Trooper Shelley Izzard of the Reed City Post. "If a Kids Identity Sticker had been placed on the safety seat of this child we would have had immediate access to valuable information such as his doctor, allergies, parents and next of kin."

The credit card-size sticker includes a space for the child’s name, address, phone number, physician name, blood type, allergies, parents’ names and the name and phone number of an emergency contact other than the parents. The sticker can be affixed either on the back of the seat or under the cushion and will provide law enforcement and emergency response personnel with vital information about the child should the parent be unable to provide this information.

The stickers were developed following a similar situation in another state where a driver was injured in a crash and was unable to tell emergency personnel anything about the child in the vehicle who also required medical treatment.

With this week (February 9-15, 2003) being Child Passenger Safety Week, the Michigan State Police encourage parents to begin using the Kids Identity Sticker on all child safety seats. The stickers are available free of charge through the Office of Highway Safety Planning at 1-800-626-4636 or online at www.michiganresourcecenter.org.

Read more press releases from the Michigan State Police.