Valdosta, Georgia –
A Valdosta man says he’s fought for 20 years to get brain injury listed as medical information on Georgia licenses.
When Alan Carter’s wife Mary got into a crash that left her with a brain injury the couple became advocates for brain injury survivors.
Now, those type injuries and other medical conditions can be included on Georgia driver’s licenses.
Mary Carter shows us her license with her brain injury listed as medical information. On September 12, 1989 she was involved in crash.
“I was sandwiched between two people and went into a coma,” said Carter.
She doesn’t drive now but if she’s ever in a car accident again, she finds comfort in knowing medics and troopers will be aware of her condition and know what to do.
“A second brain injury is worse than the first,” said Carter.
She and her husband Alan Carter have been advocates for brain injury survivors ever since her crash. Carter has been trying to get brain injury listed as a medical condition on Georgia driver licenses.
“I was driven in 1995 to see it happened,” said Alan Carter. “Doors were slamming in my face every where I went.”
Finally he came across someone at the state drivers services office.
“I picked up the phone and called driver’s licenses and kept calling and kept calling them different times and met an angel there that listened,” said Carter.
Three weeks ago Mary carter got her new license in the mail.
You can get the form from the driver’s licenses web site or pick one up at your county’s driver services office. It has a list of conditions including brain injury.
And it’s their hope the thousands of people with injuries will get the information on their driver’s license.
The CDC estimates 1.7 million people across the country sustain traumatic brain injuries each year.