Killion introduces pair of bills aimed at saving lives

WEST CHESTER >> State Sen. Tom Killion, R-9, has introduced two pieces of legislation aimed at saving lives in different ways.

One bill would establish cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in Pennsylvania’s high schools, while the second bill is designed to reduce heatstroke deaths for children left in cars during hot weather.

“Good legislation can be written to save lives,” said Killion. “This is certainly the case with my CPR and child heatstroke bills. Both proposals will be top priorities for me in the Senate’s new two-year legislative session,” he added.

Killion’s CPR legislation, Senate Bill 115, passed the Senate unanimously during the last legislative session but was not considered in the state House. The bill would set new academic standards for CPR training in grades nine through twelve while adding hands only CPR instruction to

Pennsylvania’s education curriculum.

The goal of Killion’s legislation is to prepare generations of students with fundamental life skills.

Killion noted that over

350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of hospitals each year. There is a less than 10 percent survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest.

If enacted, this instructional enhancement in high schools will substantially expand CPR training in Pennsylvania. Thirtyeight states have similar high school CPR instruction

policies.

Killion’s child heatstroke bill also unanimously passed the Senate during the previous legislative session but was not scheduled for a vote in the House. This legislation would extend Good Samaritan civil liability protections to individuals who, in an effort to save an unattended child, breaks a window or forcibly enters a locked vehicle.

In 2018, at least 49 children died from vehicular heatstroke in the United States. Killion’s heatstroke legislation is Senate Bill 49 in memory of the number of children who died in hot cars last year.

Nineteen states have similar laws protecting Good Samaritans who enter locked cars in order to save children from heatstroke.

Killion said, “These laws have helped save lives in other states. It’s time for them to be enacted in Pennsylvania.”

For more information, contact Shannon Royer at sroyer@pasen.gov or 717787-4712.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Sen. Tom Killion speaking about his CPR bill at the Capitol on April 16, 2018.