It is highly desirable to notify next of kin of the death or serious injury of a crash victim before releasing the name to the news media. However, department officers will not withhold, nor advise other officials to withhold names of such victims from the news media representatives once the identities of the victims have been fully established. In such cases the officer will advise the media representatives that the next of kin have not been notified, leaving usage up to them.

Source Note:The provisions of this §1.58 adopted to be effective January 1, 1976; amended to be effective April 21, 2003, 28 TexReg 3363; amended to be effective August 13, 2009, 34 TexReg 5409.