UTAG – The Digital Dog Tag Review

Despite what we all may say, motorcycling is and can be dangerous. No matter how careful we are and how much protective and reflective gear we wear, crashes and collisions take place that are often caused by others.
If you take place in motorcycle sport you do of course increase your risk. Obviously jumping a motocross bike 30 feet in the air, or racing a bike on tarmac, or shale at high speed is arguably going to be more dangerous than just commuting to and from work.

Proper training and wearing the best protective clothing helps minimise the damage when it all goes wrong. Now there is an additional piece of kit to help with such occasions that may well be just as important as having the best crash helmet or leathers, especially if you travel abroad a lot and or suffer from any existing medical condition.

It has been designed by ex-SAS soldiers and combines old principles with new technology and it is called UTAG. It is available in either a dog tag necklace or a credit card that fits in your wallet. In both cases the UTAG features a small, foldable USB drive that allows medical personal to access important medical history or contact details if you are unconscious and unable to speak to them.

Basically, when you purchase either version to load your information you simply plug the USB end of the device into your computer and fill out the form which pops up. This is a standard format and you can fill in as much or as little as you want, as this page will be accessible to anybody who later plugs it in. When finished you just save it and remove it.

The really clever part is that there is a series of national flags that come up when the device is plugged in. By clicking on the appropriate flag the device translates the information into the same language, meaning a foreign doctor will easily understand what your condition is as it is now in their own language.

In addition to the ‘public’ page there is a private section that is protected by a password you set-up so only you can access the information. On mine I have used it to put my passports and credit card details and some important telephone numbers in case I lose any of them. The whole process of filling out the form and setting my own page took less than fifteen minutes!

The beauty is now each time I go out on the bike I know that should I end up in a position of needing help, that thanks to a sticker on the side of my helmet medical personal (who have all now been trained to look for U-Tag) will know all about me and who to contact.

With this off your mind you can concentrate on your riding and hopefully never need to find out how good this system really is, like any good insurance policy.

Of course it need not stop with motorcycling, because thanks to the two different designs you needn’t ever be without it and to be honest it is a far more effective way of getting help than putting ICE into your mobile phone!