New Georgia Law
- Thread starter JBCarroll
- Start date
Thanks for giving us the details of the new law and the higher fines involved. 
March 29, 2009
ATLANTA, GA — There’s a new law on the books to crack down on drivers who excessively break the speed limits on metro Atlanta roads. It’s been dubbed the “Superspeeder” Law and it tacks on an extra $200 to anyone caught going more than 85 miles per hour on multiple-lane highways or more than 75 miles per hour on two-lane roads.
“This is going to save lives. Most drivers don’t realize that a quarter of our crash deaths in Georgia involve excessive speed,” said Bob Dallas, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Dallas pushed strongly for the legislation.
The new law is also designed to improve the state’s image. Dallas admitted that Georgia has long been known as the state for travelers “to make up time”.
“We are consistently rated as one of the top states when it comes to traffic that exceeds the posted speed limit,” said Dallas.
Backers also cited the statistic that 60 percent of Georgia trauma admissions are victims of vehicle crashes. At the same time, the state has suffered for quite some time from a lack of funding for trauma care, especially in rural areas.
Because of that, legislators and Governor Sonny Perdue promise the money raised from fines of “Superspeeders” (an estimated $23 million per year) will go to trauma care.
But not everyone is convinced. Senator Emmanuel Jones (D-Decatur) voted against the bill. He said the current state constitution does not allow for any earmarking of funds to a specific cause.
“If we were serious about earmarking the money to go to trauma care, we would re-write the state constitution to allow it,” said Jones. “Right now, citizens just have to trust that the people who passed this law will in fact follow through. That’s going to be tough to do since the money goes into the state’s general budget.”
March 29, 2009
ATLANTA, GA — There’s a new law on the books to crack down on drivers who excessively break the speed limits on metro Atlanta roads. It’s been dubbed the “Superspeeder” Law and it tacks on an extra $200 to anyone caught going more than 85 miles per hour on multiple-lane highways or more than 75 miles per hour on two-lane roads.
“This is going to save lives. Most drivers don’t realize that a quarter of our crash deaths in Georgia involve excessive speed,” said Bob Dallas, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Dallas pushed strongly for the legislation.
The new law is also designed to improve the state’s image. Dallas admitted that Georgia has long been known as the state for travelers “to make up time”.
“We are consistently rated as one of the top states when it comes to traffic that exceeds the posted speed limit,” said Dallas.
Backers also cited the statistic that 60 percent of Georgia trauma admissions are victims of vehicle crashes. At the same time, the state has suffered for quite some time from a lack of funding for trauma care, especially in rural areas.
Because of that, legislators and Governor Sonny Perdue promise the money raised from fines of “Superspeeders” (an estimated $23 million per year) will go to trauma care.
But not everyone is convinced. Senator Emmanuel Jones (D-Decatur) voted against the bill. He said the current state constitution does not allow for any earmarking of funds to a specific cause.
“If we were serious about earmarking the money to go to trauma care, we would re-write the state constitution to allow it,” said Jones. “Right now, citizens just have to trust that the people who passed this law will in fact follow through. That’s going to be tough to do since the money goes into the state’s general budget.”
mjolnir131
Veteran Expediter
Seriously? ... 85 mph? somebody driving that fast on any highway does not need heavier fines; they need to lose there license, period, end of line