I have sought permission for this thread from PU, but since he's now away, Mods, please feel free to modify or delete whatever you wish!
As most of you know I am involved as a Founder of the Professional Drivers Association and on January 1st 2009 we launched a charity called The Professional Drivers Foundation aimed at vocational licence holders.
Within the first month we had our first case and it turned out to be a fellow founder member of the PDA known to us all.
Andy was a lorry driver and at 11am on a fine dry winters morning he had an unexplained accident. He ran off the road and hit a tree. The inquest has never found any reason for this.
However the firm he worked for didn't keep any record of his next of kin and he lived alone. He was taken to hospital and for the first 24 hours no family could be traced despite Andy having ICE in his phone. Unfortunately no-one checked it or it was confiscated to check if he had been using it at the time ( he hadn't).
Eventually his teenage son and daughter were traced and they had just 12 hours with him before he died.
The Professional Drivers Foundation helped the family but it was there wish that we develop some sort of means of identification to run alongside ICE ( In Case of Emergency) to try and prevent this happening to anyone else.
We have developed the PDF Next of Kin Card which is a laminated, credit card size document to be carried in your wallet or purse.
Details of how to get one free of charge can be found here www.pdafund.org/news.html .
I personally get a lot of pleasure and knowledge from these forums, and it occured to me that a lot of you do as many miles as we lorry drivers do. In view of this we would be happy to supply anyone with a NOK card and pass on advice about the use of ICE in your phone if needed.
Pat
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 27/07/2009 at 20:39
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