NJ Creating Emergency-Contact Registry for Motorists

A new state law will provide an emergency-contact registry for motorists involved in a crash. 

Gov. Chris Christie signed the legislation, known as "Sara's Law," last week. 

The law is named for the late Sara Dubinin, a Sayerville, Middlesex County, resident who was seriously injured in a 2007 traffic crash. She fell into a coma and later died. It took nearly two hours for her parents to be notified of the crash. 

Under the new law, anyone with a New Jersey driver's license or non-driver identification card can submit to the state Motor Vehicle Commission the names and telephone numbers of up to two emergency contacts. 

The computerized registry will allow police to quickly contact next of kin when someone is seriously injured or killed in a crash.  

The new law lowers the age at which someone can obtain a non-driver identification card, from 17 to 14, to increase the number of teenagers who can register emergency contact information. 

The information will be protected, and will only be accessible to certain Motor Vehicle Commission employees and to police. 

New Jersey is the seventh state to create an emergency contact registry for motorists. The others are Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado and Delaware. 

The registry won't take effect for 18 months so that the Motor Vehicle Commission can program its computers to process the emergency contact information, according to the governor's office. 

Sponsors of the legislation included state  Sen. Joseph F. Vitale (D-Middlesex), and Assemblymen John S. Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), Craig J. Coughlin (D-Middlesex) and Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson).