A Florida company is working to keep runners and cyclists safer outside.
Have The Drive Emergency ID bands display all critical information on the inside of your wrist in a waterproof band. This includes your emergency contact, insurance information, driver's license number and primary care physician.
The idea for the emergency ID bands came after Jeffrey Agid was cycling and a car hit him. He had no identification on him.
"He said, 'If I were unconscious or dead, how would the EMTs or cops be able to identify me?'" said Michael Baum, Agid's son-in-law and co-owner of Have The Drive, based in Clearwater.
Soon, Baum started hearing stories of other runners and cyclists who had similar close calls.
Alone on a St. Petersburg running trail, Norma Jean Hetrick felt a stabbing pain, and then nothing.
"I felt a hot flash down my right side and my foot just went numb," she said. "The next thing I knew, I just fell over and I couldn't get up."
She had no idea she was having a stroke. Hetrick also had no identification on her.
"I didn't know what to tell the paramedics when they came," she said.
"People think you don't need any type of wristband, but when it comes down to it, you don't want to be in that type of situation," Baum said.
When researching the needs of customers when developing the ID bands, Baum said he went to emergency workers who said the three critical pieces of information you must have on you besides your name are your drivers license number, your insurance information and your emergency contact.
Because Hetrick's EMTs didn't have any of that information, they took her to an out-of-network hospital, where the bills really piled up.
Now, she wears her critical information in order to take no chances.
While many people have their medical information now stored in the medical ID section of their cellphones, Baum recommends even if you don't wear a wristband of some kind, that you carry your information on you in some way.
He said the medical ID on a cellphone isn't always reliable because if the phone breaks, shuts off or gets wet, EMTs still may be unable to access your critical information.
Have The Drive Emergency ID bandscan be found at the St. Pete Running Company.
