Mattituck Fire Department distributes free ROTH emergency ID tags

To improve the ability of first responders to help children in emergency situations, the Mattituck Fire Department has partnered with the Julie Roth Memorial Foundation to distribute their product, ROTH ID Tags, which are self-adhesive informational tags that list a child's name, date of birth, emergency contacts and other important information and can be attached directly to the car seat.

Fire Chief Robert Haas said the fire department has purchased 500 tags to distribute to the public for free until they run out. Anyone with a child who uses a car seat can contact a fire department official or stop by the Mattituck Fire District office between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily to pick up a tags.

“If an underage boy, a toddler or an infant who cannot speak for himself is caught and something happens to the parents – God forbid it is a serious accident – then the child's data is stored on a sticker that becomes a bracelet and accompanies the child throughout the trip to the hospital,” said Police Chief Haas.

While he pointed out that he had not encountered situations of this kind very often in his professional career, he did say that there had been a few occasions when rescue workers had difficulty identifying children involved in an accident.

“It was not a question of life and death, but an accident in which [they] “I didn't know the child's name at first because the parents were already loaded into the ambulance,” said Mr Haas. “It was a little chaotic at the moment, but it was only a five-minute chaotic phase – [the tags] would eliminate that process and cause us even more stress trying to figure out a child's name and all that.”

The concept of ROTH ID Tags was born out of tragedy for founder Lauren Crafton and her family. On December 23, 2022, Ms. Crafton's pregnant sister Julie Roth was traveling with her two young children when they were involved in a 47-car pileup on the Ohio Turnpike. Ms. Roth and the baby she was carrying, Edna Rose, did not survive the accident.

However, their frightened toddlers arrived and waited for hours before seeing a familiar face while rescue workers tried to identify them and contact their father, who was at work.

Under the guidance of the same first responders who rescued Ms. Roth's children from the wreckage, less than a year after her sister's death, Ms. Crafton developed the concept, filed a patent and found a manufacturer to produce the unique pendants.

Rollout of the tags began in Ohio and North Carolina, and since their inception, ROTH ID tags have been adopted by nearly 500 community partners across the country, including fire departments, police stations, hospitals and nonprofit organizations. The group has also launched a strong social media campaign to promote the tags and continue to expand their reach.

More than 100,000 tags have been distributed since April, mostly for car seats, Crafton said, adding that many first responders she has spoken to have told her that the tags have “made a huge difference” in previous emergencies.

“I was awake at 3 a.m. talking to first responders through our website who will never forget sitting on the side of the road, holding a baby next to a deceased parent, and having no idea who to call for that baby,” Ms. Crafton said. “We developed this to mitigate the trauma for children [of] “The fact that the children in these situations could not be identified touched me deeply. The 'happy coincidence' was that I realized how much trauma we can also alleviate for the first responders and medical staff who are now sitting with these children.”

Ms. Crafton said the nonprofit hopes to launch its “travel tags” for adults and children who are too old for car seats by the end of October. This special product can be carried in an adult's wallet or purse, placed in a child's backpack, or attached to a car's sun visor. An information tag that can be attached to a regular car seat belt is also in the works.

“The way [the first responder community has] The way they took it upon themselves to spread the word and let their other organizations in the area know was really great,” Ms. Crafton said.

Chief Haas said he was unaware that many other organizations on Long Island had already received ROTH ID tags, but he noticed that the fire department's Facebook announcement of the partnership generated many positive comments from the community. He said some commenters who live outside the North Fork region had tagged their own fire departments to see how they could get their own ROTH ID tags.

The fire chief expressed interest in finding more products that could help disabled children who may find themselves in such crisis situations and have communication difficulties.

To help raise awareness and spread the word about the ROTH ID tags, he has also notified the Southold Police Department about the tags so they can be aware of them and consider partnering with them of their own.

“I'm trying to find something that we can all work together on and help each other in our community, not just as first responders, but as everyone else,” said Chief Haas. “I hope all the other departments in the Eighth Division and on the North Fork adopt this as well – I think it would be very beneficial if it was everywhere.”