SAYREVILLE — A proposed state law, creating a next-of-kin registry to notify family when a loved one is incapacitated in a serious accident, received final legislative approval in the Assembly Feb. 17.
The proposed Sara’s Law is named in honor of Sara Dubinin, a 19-year-old Sayreville resident who was critically injured in a car accident in September 2007. It took emergency personnel an hour and a half to notify her parents of the accident, and by the time they arrived at the hospital, she had already slipped into a coma. Sara died the next morning having never awoken.
The Assembly previously voted 78-0 to approve the measure in June, and an amended version unanimously passed the Senate in December. The Feb. 17 Assembly vote concurred with the Senate amendments. The bill’s sponsors are assemblymen John S. Wisniewski, Craig J. Coughlin (both D-Middlesex) and Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson). It now heads to the governor for approval.
Sara’s mother, Betty, said she is still apprehensive about the governor signing it, but is relieved that the bill has made it to this point and is appreciative to its supporters in the Legislature.
“We are hopeful that this bill will prevent other families from experiencing missing what could be their last few moments with their loved ones, and perhaps saving lives,” Betty Dubinin said.
“In addition to our devastating grief, the ‘what ifs’ and ‘if onlys’ rewind and replay constantly, wondering what would have happened if I could have been with Sara, instead of Sara being alone with no one who loves her, and whom she loves to be with her. Just to hold her hand, reassure her, speak for her, could that have made a difference … we will never know, and we have lost that time with Sara forever.
“Perhaps now others will have that chance with their loved ones,” she said.
Under Sara’s Law, the holder of any New Jersey State driver’s license or nondriver identification card would have the opportunity to voluntarily electronically submit the name and phone number of two emergency contacts to the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC).
If a registered individual was subsequently involved in a motor vehicle accident that results in serious injury, death or incapacitation, law enforcement personnel would use the registry to notify the emergency contacts.
In addition, the measure would lower the age limit for a MVC-issued nondriver identification card from age 17 to 14, though anyone under 17 would need parental consent to get the card. Parents obtaining a nondriver identification card for their child would be able to designate themselves as the emergency registry contact.
The sponsors hope this would increase the number of teenage participants in the next-ofkin registry.
The bill was amended so it would take effect in 18 months, coinciding with a state Motor Vehicle Commission computer upgrade.
“This bill bearing Sara’s name will be here long after I am gone, so Sara will be remembered,” Betty Dubinin said. “But I hope that I am able to see that it helped just one family to have those moments with their loved ones.”