Ohio Code 4501.81 – Licensee next-of-kin database
(A) The bureau of motor vehicles shall establish a database of the next of kin of persons who are issued driver’s licenses, commercial driver’s licenses, temporary instruction permits, motorcycle operator‘s licenses and endorsements, and identification cards. Information in the database shall be accessible only to employees of the bureau and to criminal justice agencies and is not a public record for purposes of section 149.43 of the Revised Code.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 4501.81
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Internet: means the international computer network of both federal and nonfederal interoperable packet switched data networks, including the graphical subnetwork known as the world wide web. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Motor vehicle: means any vehicle, including mobile homes and recreational vehicles, that is propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power or power collected from overhead electric trolley wires. See Ohio Code 4501.01
- Motorcycle: means a motor vehicle with motive power having a seat or saddle for the use of the operator, designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, and having no occupant compartment top or occupant compartment top that can be installed or removed by the user. See Ohio Code 4501.01
- Operator: includes any person who drives or operates a motor vehicle upon the public highways. See Ohio Code 4501.01
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Vehicles: means everything on wheels or runners, including motorized bicycles, but does not mean electric personal assistive mobility devices, low-speed micromobility devices, vehicles that are operated exclusively on rails or tracks or from overhead electric trolley wires, and vehicles that belong to any police department, municipal fire department, or volunteer fire department, or that are used by such a department in the discharge of its functions. See Ohio Code 4501.01
(B) When an individual submits an application to the registrar of motor vehicles or a deputy registrar for a driver’s license, commercial driver’s license, temporary instruction permit, motorcycle operator’s license or endorsement, or identification card, or renewal of any of them, the individual shall be furnished with a next of kin information form on which the individual may list the name, address, telephone number, and relationship to the individual of at least one contact person whom the individual wishes to be contacted if the individual is involved in a motor vehicle accident or emergency situation and the individual dies or is seriously injured or rendered unconscious and is unable to communicate with the contact person. The contact person may or may not be the next of kin of the applicant, except that if the applicant is under eighteen years of age and is not emancipated, the contact person shall include the parent, guardian, or custodian of the applicant.
The form described in this division shall inform the individual that, after completing the form, the individual may return the form to the registrar or any deputy registrar, each of whom shall accept the form from the individual without payment of any fee. The form also shall contain the mailing address of the bureau, to which the individual may mail the completed form, and also instructions whereby the individual may furnish the information described in this division to the registrar through use of the internet.
(C) The bureau, in accordance with Chapter 119. of the Revised Code, shall adopt rules to implement this section. The rules shall address all of the following:
(1) The methods whereby a person who has submitted the name of a contact person for inclusion in the database may make changes to that entry;
(2) The contents of the next of kin information form;
(3) Any other aspect of the database or its operation that the registrar determines is necessary in order to implement this section.
(D) In the event of a motor vehicle accident or emergency situation in which a person dies or is seriously injured or rendered unconscious and is unable to communicate with the contact person specified in the database, an employee of a criminal justice agency shall make a good faith effort to notify the contact person of the situation, but neither the bureau nor the employee nor the criminal justice agency that employs that employee incurs any liability if the employee is not able to make contact with the contact person.