OKEECHOBEE COUNTY, Fla. -- An Okeechobee family is grieving the loss of their teenage daughter, killed in a car crash in June.
The pain is even harder to bear because they were not notified about the crash for hours.
The lapse in notification kept Michael and Stephanie Carter from being able to say their goodbyes.
Stephanie Carter says her daughter, 17-year-old Ashley Carter, was driving along Highway 98 in Okeechobee on her way to sing karaoke with friends. “She loved to sing,” Stephanie said. “We’d mute the TV just to hear her sing.”
She graduated high school five days before the deadly crash on June 9. Stephanie says investigators still do not know exactly what caused the crash, but another driver hit her car head on. Her car flipped into a swale. She died several hours later.
“The crash happened at 5:40, she arrived at the hospital at 6:30. We got our first phone call at 8:16,” Stephanie said.
Stephanie says Ashley’s phone was damaged, so law enforcement could not look through her phone for a family phone number.
Her license was in a coin purse in the glove box which law enforcement did not find until later.
The car was registered to Stephanie, but she says law enforcement was not able to find her cell phone number. She says hospital staff recognized Ashley’s last name because Stephanie works there. That’s when she says she finally got the call.
Stephanie says she and Michael were several hours away on a fishing trip. They would have been able to call family nearby to be with Ashley had they been told sooner.
They also could have been there nearly three hours earlier.
“I would have been able to kiss her forehead while she was still warm,” Stephanie said.
Now, Ashley’s name is on a post along the side of the road, with flowers and a cross.
The Carters want to spread the word about a statewide database used to protect families from this outcome.
The Florida Emergency Contact Information Database was put into place nearly 10 years ago after another Florida family suffered through a similar situation.
Tiffany Olson was killed in a crash in Manatee County. Her family was not notified for several hours.
The database allows registered drivers to enter an emergency family contact number into the DAVID database, which law enforcement can access through a driver’s license or license plate number.
Since the database was created, more than 10 million Florida drivers have registered an emergency contact number.
The Florida Highway Patrol says they have used the database successfully over the years to contact family.
They also urge people to regularly update their emergency contact information.
Before Ashley’s crash, the Carters say they had never heard about the database.
“I did not know, and I’ve been asking around and nobody seems to know.”
To date, about 30 percent of Florida drivers have not listed an emergency contact number or address.
The Carters hope to be a part of getting more people to enter information into the database.
“We got up that morning, hugged and kissed her. Didn’t know that would be the last time,” Stephanie said.
Okeechobee County Commissioner, Bryant Culpepper, says he also plans to work with legislators in the state to make the database an “opt out” system instead of an “opt in” system, similar to becoming an organ donor.
He says he plans to meet with lawmakers in October.
Learn more about signing up for the database by clicking here.