The Georgia Senate today passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, that adds parents and siblings to the list of family members who may receive compensation if a firefighter, police officer, prison guard or other emergency or law enforcement official dies or is brain-damaged in the line of duty.
The bill is named for Jarrett Little, a Walker County and Fort Oglethorpe firefighter who died in January, 2009, when the firetruck he was driving overturned. He was unmarried and had no dependents but his parents were’t allowed to collect from the Georgia State Indemnification Fund.
Current law already provides that payment must be made to the surviving non-remarried spouse, to the dependents of the spouse or deceased person, or to the legal guardian of the organically brain damaged person.
“Georgia’s law enforcement and emergency personnel put their lives on the line each and every day to protect us from tragedies and save our lives in emergencies,” Sen. Mullis said. “The least we can do is make sure their indemnification funds remain with their families when they make the ultimate sacrifice and fall in the line of duty. It shouldn’t matter if they are married, single or without a dependent. Their indemnification fund should stay with the family.”