The Senate Transportation Committee advanced a bill Wednesday that would levy a new $200 fee against “super speeders” to help fund an emergency trauma network in Kentucky. Under the proposal, a motorist would be considered a “super speeder” if convicted of driving more than 25 miles per hour over the speed limit on a state highway.
The legislation, Senate Bill 57, cleared the committee with a 7-1 vote.
Fees collected from such speeders would be used to boost Kentucky’s trauma care system fund, a rural hospital preservation fund, an emergency medical technician scholarship fund, and a fund to help public schools purchase automated external defibrillators.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, said the measure is modeled after legislation in Georgia. He said the Kentucky legislature passed a bill in 2008 to establish a trauma care network, but it has never received an appropriation.
“One of my frequent complaints as a legislator here is that we never measure the cost of doing nothing, and certainly by not funding this network has cost us dearly not just in terms of lives – probably during that period we lost 85,000 lives due to trauma – average about 5,000 a year,” he said. “And if we had a network in place, probably conservatively, we could have saved at least 5,000 lives.”
Meredith said many trauma patients have had to leave Kentucky to receive treatment, and millions of Medicaid dollars have been spent in other states.
Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, asked Meredith about the number of tickets being issued on limited access highways versus urban areas. He voted against the measure, citing the funding mechanism.
“I think we can agree that if you’re going 25 miles and over in the middle of a city, that’s dangerous, and I can see a reason for a super speeder fine,” he said. “If you’re trying to get home at 10 o’clock at night, and there’s nobody on a limited access highway at all, frankly I would just adopt Montana’s reasonable and prudent standard. And as long as you’re not being unsafe, then I don’t really think you should have to pay an additional fine.”
Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, said he’s concerned about air ambulance bills and asked if a fund or pool could be set up to help families defray the costs of services.
Meredith said the network needs to be built, but he envisions some way to address this issue.
“It’s economically killing for a lot of families,” he said of the costs. “We have to build the system first.”
Meredith said the bill could change the trajectory of health care in Kentucky for almost every citizen.
“The other option that could be available to us if this bill doesn’t pass is we have an appropriation request in the next budget cycle for $10 million. We know that’s not going to happen, so this is a way to fund this system without costing the taxpayers any additional tax burden,” he said.
Information from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission.
