More often than not, the public gets comfortable with hard answers to tough questions before their elected representatives do. That's clearly the case when it comes to improving trauma care in Georgia.

By most estimates it will take at least $275 million a year to have the state-of-the art trauma system all Georgians want — ready to respond if our children or other family members are involved in a major car crash or factory explosion anywhere in the state.

Right now Georgians don't have it — and they know it. A new survey of 504 Georgians, sponsored by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation, found that South Georgians are more than twice as likely as their neighbors in other parts of the state to believe that they live more than 60 minutes from a trauma center. The truth is, that probably understates reality.

Consider eight years of traffic accident and fatality data (1996-2003) compiled by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety and track the death toll down I-75 from Atlanta to the Florida line. In Fulton and Clayton counties, which are served by Grady Memorial Hospital and other trauma centers, the percentage of car wrecks resulting in deaths was .24 — one-quarter of 1 percent. Similarly, in Bibb County, home of the Medical Center of Central Georgia and its trauma center, the death rate per automobile crash was .35 percent.

But as you head south down I-75, the risk of death if you are in an auto crash rises. By the time you get to Turner County, roughly 80 miles south of Macon and well outside the "golden hour" of trauma care, 3.16 percent of motor vehicle crashes resulted in a fatality — more than 12 times that of Fulton and Clayton counties.

That's a tragedy, but it shouldn't be a surprise. Of Georgia's 15 trauma centers, only two — Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville and Memorial Hospital in Savannah — are located south of the line that runs from Columbus through Macon to Augusta.

Certainly the entire difference in death rates cannot be blamed on the absence of trauma care — but the data patterns are certainly clear and suggestive.

And based on our survey, the majority of Georgians want to fix Georgia's trauma problem.

Specifically:

• Told it would cost $85 million a year just to stabilize Georgia's existing trauma system, 49.5 percent nonetheless said that would make them "much more likely" to support the program, and another 24.6 percent said it would make them "somewhat more likely" to do so.

• Then, told it would take $275 million a year to "expand" trauma care so that all Georgians could have roughly equal access regardless of where they live, 51.2 percent said that figure made them "much more likely" to support greater funding vs. 23.1 percent who said "somewhat more likely."

With any luck, the General Assembly will follow their constituents and take action to address this critical problem. Lives depend on it.

• Gary Nelson is president of the Healthcare Georgia Foundation.