Mother Pushes Emergency Contact Initiative In Memory Of Her Son

A woman shared her story of perseverance after learning of her son's death before she could say goodbye.

When someone gets in a car crash, police said it can be very difficult to track down their loved ones, 10TV's Karina Nova reported.

Such was the case of David Money, who died hours after being involved in a car crash.  Police had no way to contact his mother, Carmela Wiant, to let her know he was in the hospital.

Money was dead by the time his mother found out.

"He was in a van, lost control, the van went into the median, flipped a couple times, he was injured, obviously, taken to the hospital," Franklin County Sheriff's Office Sergeant. Carl Hickey said. Hickey arrived at the scene to investigate.

Wiant didn't learn about the crash until two hours after it occurred. Police had no way of contacting her.

"Trying to piece together a person's life by what you see in their wallet," Hickey said. "That was the case with him, I had no idea who to contact."

Hickey said that if there been an easy way to find an emergency contact, Wiant might have been with her son when he died.

"I could have at least gotten the county sheriff over to her house, made the notification in person and made sure she was safe in getting to Grant hospital to at least see her son," Hickey said.

Motivated by the pain of her circumstance, Wiant kicked into action to make it so no one has to experience the pain of not knowing.

Wiant convinced Ohio legislators that there is a problem, now every driver in the state can list two emergency contacts with their license or state identification card, Nova reported.

"She's taken an incredible tragedy in her life and turned it around to make it better for someone down that line," Hickey said. "This makes it easier for me because we know exactly who to contact, just by looking up the driver's license."

Wiant hopes people can learn from her loss and the way she learned of it.

"I never want anyone told the way is was, ever," Wiant said. "They said it's a mom's worst nightmare, and it is. Sometimes it's like I never woke up. He was my life."

Two other states, inspired by Wiant's story, passed similar bills.

Only 160,000 people in Ohio have signed up their emergency contacts so far. Wiant hopes every person in Ohio registers their emergency contacts so they do not go through her pain.

"You never plan on being in an accident." Wiant said, "But this will make it easy on your loved ones if something does happen to you. They'll know immediately."

Police would only use the contacts for emergency situations, Nova reported.

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