In over half a century of involvement in international motor sport – as a driver, as an administrator and as a team manager and owner Peter WEARING SMITH has seen safety in the sport improve in leaps and bounds.

And not before time. In the 20 years following the awakening of his interest in the sport in 1954, more than 45 leading drivers were killed in motor sport, along with many more from lesser categories. Today, a fatality in the sport is rare, especially at the top level.

Much if this is due to the sustained efforts of three people.

Scotsman, Jackie STEWART, was World Champion in 1969, 1971 and 1973. As president of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, he was a leading advocate of higher safety standards for drivers. Following the death of his friend and team-mate, Francois Cevert, in the 1973 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen circuit, Stewart retired from the sport and became an even more zealous campaigner, achieving a revolution in safety standards in many different areas of the sport.

Max MOSLEY was elected president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) in 1993, with a motor sporting background as driver, team owner and constructor. As a driver, he became acutely aware of the need for higher safety standards following the death of two team-mates in 1968 and 1970. As head of the FIA sporting division since 1991 and later the parent organisation, Mosley has provided consistently strong leadership on road safety in general and motor sport safety in particular.

Another Englishman, Sid WATKINS, the son of a Liverpool car dealer,  became interested in motor sport while a student at the Liverpool University Medical School. Following his National Service in West Africa he later specialised in neurosurgery. After a period in the US, Watkins returned to Britain and, while professor of neurosurgery at the London Hospital, became a member of the RAC Motor Racing Medical Panel and later Formula 1's doctor.

Among the arsenal available to Watkins at races world-wide has been comprehensive medical information on all drivers, so that in the event of injury or illness, appropriate treatment can be provided promptly and accurately in the knowledge of any existing medical conditions.

And it is the importance of the ready availability of this information that is addressed by the flashID Emergency Identification System.

In 2003, having bought a USB flash key during a visit to China, Wearing Smith was wondering what to do with it when the thought occurred that a simple, easily portable device such as this would be ideal for storing identification and medical information relating to the holder.

This was the start of a period of evolution of the flashID concept and of the Emergency Identification Document (EID) which has been developed after extensive consultation with Police and other emergency services professionals and constant refinement of the Document.