Daniel White received a phone call he never wanted to receive.
It was his Florida Trail Riders family, letting him know that one of their trail mates had hit a tree, knocking him unconscious.
What followed was a series of discoveries that illuminated communication gaps that, tragically, had never been considered.
When emergency officials arrived, they realized they didn’t know the answers to simple questions.
What’s his medical history? Medications? Allergies? Wife’s contact number?
“This is a guy we had all known for five or more years,” White said. “But we didn’t know much about him other than his wife’s name.”
White’s friend passed away in the woods that day.
What followed was a wave of panic over how to reach the victim’s wife.
“None of them had her phone number,” White said. “It took another 20 minutes or so with just mass kind of panic hysteria trying to figure out how are we going to tell her that she needs to meet her husband at the hospital.”
The severity of the situation underscored the immediate need for a solution.
The new hobby and community
A U.S. Marine veteran, White had taken up dirt biking after a serious ankle injury sidelined him from running sports. The new hobby provided a strong community.
“The camaraderie is great,” he said. “You race for two hours, beat yourself up pretty bad, get really tired, get a lot of exercise, and you come back and sit around the campfire, drink beer and tell us about how well you did or bad you did. It’s just fun. It’s fun for everyone involved.”
After the tragedy, the community turned to White, an IT professional, to come up with a solution, which eventually became Scan ID 365.
The community knew White was the right person for the job because he had already put his skills to work for them.
“I had built the electronic scoring system at the Florida Trail Riders,” he said. “It ran for 10 years. So I had the credibility because I’d already done that once for the group.”
Florida Trails safety through Scan ID 365
The product, called Scan ID 365, is a QR-embedded ID sticker that riders can place on their gear. The code links to a secure online profile containing critical, potentially life-saving information. The friends issued a clear command: “Can we create a system that we can at least answer these basic questions, like medications, medical conditions, allergies, emergency contacts?”
Today, the work on Scan ID 365 continues to demand a high personal price, especially as he rebuilds the system to handle enterprise contracts from the maritime and equestrian industries.
“It’s uncanny how similar our sports are,” White said of the equestrian community. “They have the same things happen to them.”
This work requires sacrifice, as Scan ID is one of three businesses White manages.
“I spend more time on this company that doesn’t make me any money than I do on the other two that are making me money,” he said. “But there is a quote I really love. ‘It takes 10 years to of hard work to be an overnight success.'”