ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>Oklahoma State Senate - News</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="author" content="oklahoma state senate staff"> <meta name="description" content="Oklahoma State Senate - Press Release"> <meta name="keywords" content="oklahoma, state, senate, press, release"> </head> <body leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <table width="87%" height="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the main navigation menu"> <tr> <td colspan="+2"><!-- #BeginLibraryItem "/Library/barnews.lbi" --> &nbsp;<map name="m_barnews"><area shape="rect" coords="0,0,26,19" href="../../../index.htm" alt="Link to main page" ><area shape="rect" coords="26,0,119,20" href="../../../senators.htm" alt="Link to Senators" ><area shape="rect" coords="124,0,217,20" href="../../../legislation.htm" alt="Link to Legislation" ><area shape="rect" coords="216,0,309,20" href="../../../schedule.htm" alt="Link to Schedule" ><area shape="rect" coords="310,0,403,20" href="../../../committees.htm" alt="Link to Committees" ><area shape="rect" coords="403,0,496,20" href="../../../publications.htm" alt="Link to Publications" ><area shape="rect" coords="498,2,591,20" href="../../../news.htm" alt="Link to News" ><area shape="rect" coords="593,0,689,20" href="../../../staff.htm" alt="Link to Staff" ></map><!-- #EndLibraryItem --></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="100%"> <table width="100%" height="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the news navigation menu"> <tr> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="100%"></td> </tr> </table> <br> </td> <td width="100%"><table width="82%" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the main content of the page"> <tr> <TD width="75%" bordercolor="#FFFFFF"> <p align="center"><FONT SIZE="+3" FACE="Arial" align="center"><strong>Oklahoma State Senate <br> </strong></font><FONT align="center">Communications Division<br> State Capitol<br> Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105</font></p> <div align="center"> <br> <table width="14%" border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td width="52%" bordercolor="0"><div align="center"><a href="../../press_releases_audio_clips/2010_audio_clips/prac201002.html"><img src="../headphone.gif" alt="Audio clip" width="27" height="27" border="0"></a></div></td> <td width="48%" bordercolor="0"><div align="center"><font face="Arial"><a href="pr20100216hpv.html"><img src="../../printnews.gif" alt="Printer-friendly version" width="25" height="25" border="0"></a></font></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="0"><div align="center"> <a href="../../press_releases_audio_clips/2010_audio_clips/prac201005.html">Audio</a></div></td> <td bordercolor="0"><div align="center"><a href="pr20100520apv.html">Print</a></div></td> </tr> </table> </div> <p align="center">For Immediate Release: May 20, 2010<br> <br> <img src="../senator_photos/burrage_bio.jpg" alt="Sen. Sean Burrage" width="143" height="200"> <br> Sen. Sean Burrage<br> <strong><br> Emergency Contact Bill One Step Closer to Governor s Desk</strong></p> <p> The full Senate has given final approval to a measure to ensure loved ones will be notified in a timely way if a family member has been involved in a serious accident. Sen. Sean Burrage is principal author of Senate Bill 1779. The bill was approved unanimously on Wednesday.</p> <p>  This is a strictly voluntary program to give people who choose to participate the ability to provide emergency contact information when applying for or renewing their driver license or ID, explained Burrage, D-Claremore.  The information would not appear on the driver license, but would instead be entered into a database maintained by the Department of Public Safety. </p> <p> Burrage said he filed the bill after being approached by a friend who had lost a family member in a car accident. </p> <p>  The family was devastated by this loss, but it was compounded because they didn t find out until the next day. Responders had been unable to find any contact information among the victim s personal belongings at the time of the accident. They finally were forced to break into his apartment in order to get the name of a relative, Burrage said.  Had this program been in place, the family would have known about the accident in a much more timely way. </p> <p> SB 1779 now goes to Gov. Brad Henry for his consideration.<br> <strong><br> </strong> <strong>For more information contact:</strong><br> Sen. Burrage: 405-521-5555</p> <p align="left"><img src="../bandblue.gif" alt="Inon: Horizontal Blue Band" width="640" height="6"></p> <table border=0 align="center" summary="this table contains return links"> <tr> <td width="267"> <center> <font size="-1" face="MS Sans Serif"><a href="pr201002.html">February Press Releases </a>| </font><font face="MS Sans Serif"><a href="../../press_releases.html"><font size="-1">Press Releases</font></a></font><font size="-1"> </font> </center></td> </tr> </table> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td height="100%">&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>