By State Sen. Greg Goggans
ATLANTA (February 13, 2009) – This week I proposed and supported legislation that will more efficiently provide Georgians with protection in crucial areas of their lives—trauma care, food safety, and child security from sexual predators.
More than one million Georgians live more than 50 miles from a trauma center. This puts them way beyond the golden hour when emergency caregivers have the greatest chance to save someone’s life. I have made a commitment to the people in my district to make Georgia safer and improve the quality of life. To honor my commitment, I have introduced Senate Resolution 277, which establishes the Georgia Trauma Trust Fund. The life saving measure would impose a trauma charge of $10.00 per year on each passenger vehicle licensed and registered in the state.
In Metro Atlanta a fatality occurs once every 339 accidents; in rural Georgia a fatality occurs once every 74 accidents. This higher death rate in areas such as ours is no accident due to the injured that are unable to get to a hospital in time. Crash data show accident death rates increase the further victims are from a trauma center. The Georgia trauma death rate is 63 percent while the national average is 56 percent. Experts say we could save 700 more lives by fully funding trauma care—I believe we could save more. Trauma care cost money; no trauma care will cost more. There is no price on saving someone’s life.
Georgia is the number one peanut producer in the nation producing 45 percent of the United States’ peanuts. Consumers must be assured their food is safe and we must protect the integrity of Georgia’s producers. This week my colleagues and I of the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee unanimously passed Senate Bill 80, the Food Safety Testing, Reporting & Record Keeping bill. The legislation imposes stricter guidelines on food testing for processing plants in response to the nationwide salmonella outbreak that was linked to a South Georgia peanut butter plant in Blakely.
This legislation provides the Department free access to any food processor’s testing records for the presence of contaminants. The Commissioner of Agriculture is also directed to establish requirements for regular food testing on a yearly or more frequent basis. Processors are to report suspicions or positive finds of contaminates within one business day of the discovery directly to the state. The bill gives the commissioner the right to test any food if there are reasonable grounds to suspect contamination.
A measure to help protect school children from sexual predators also overwhelmingly passed. Senate Bill 14 amends current state law by adding that no one on the National Sex Offender Registry or the state sexual offender registry can be elected to serve on a local board of education. The idea that a pedophile can be a member of a local school board and have unrestricted access to schools cannot be tolerated. We must do everything in our power to protect the children of our state and this bill will help us achieve that goal.
Please remember to contact me in my office on the issues that are affecting you and your area. I am here to represent you and it is an honor for me to work on your behalf. As always, I’d like to thank members of the Senate staff, who contribute regularly to my column.
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Sen. Greg Goggans represents the 7th Senate District, which includes Atkinson, Bacon, Berrien, Clinch, Coffee, Echols, Lanier, Pierce and Ware counties and a portion of Cook County.
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