CITY, OTHERS TO GET SEAT-BELT-USAGE AWARD

The city of Cape Girardeau is one of six cities being added to the national "70 Percent Plus Honor Roll" in recognition of high safety-belt usage.

The city will be recognized for the honor at a noon luncheon Thursday at Drury Lodge.

In addition to the city, Southeast Missouri Hospital, St. Francis Medical Center, Procter and Gamble, Cape Central High School, Notre Dame High School and Clippard Elementary School will also be presented the award by Arvid E. West Jr., director of the Missouri Division of Highway Safety.

West said the award is given to any organization that has reached and sustained 70 percent or higher safety-belt use among its members. In addition to receiving a plaque, the winners' names will be displayed on the "honor roll" at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington D. C., he said.

Sharee Galnore, coordinator of the Community Traffic Safety program, said a trivia week was held at both of the high schools on highway safety issues. She said Central went from a 52 percent seat-belt-usage rate to a 84 percent usage rate in just one month.

Galnore said each of the community organizations were responsible for their own surveying. For example, the hospitals conducted their surveys on their parking lot, having employees fill out the surveys, she said.

Their results then had to show that as a whole the hospital was at the 70 percent level and could maintain that level for a month, at the end of which a second survey was taken, Galnore said.

"We tried to make the community aware of the need of seat-belt usage and for them to get into the habit of using them all the time," Galnore said. "We have to educate the kids and the adults alike.

"They need to understand the personal benefits of wearing seat belts. Our No. 1 goal is trying to get people to give wearing their seat belt a try, and over time it will become a habit."

Galnore said that in 1984 Cape Girardeau's seat-belt usage was only 7 percent. Through work with the Missouri Division of Highway Safety the Cape Girardeau Community Traffic Safety Program has put on numerous programs on seat-belt and drunken-driving issues, she said.

"The community traffic safety organizations have been pushing seat-belt use especially in schools because young drivers are at high risk," Kris Farris, media coordinator for the Missouri Division of Highway Safety, said. "Car crashes are the leading cause of death for that age group and they are also the least likely to buckle up, she said."

Farris said they are seeing some key results with seat-belt usage. There are still car crashes, but seat belts help to reduce the number of fatalities, she said.

"At the beginning of 1992, the surveys we conducted through the Highway Patrol showed a 64 percent usage rate," Farris said. "By December, as a state, we had reached the 70 percent usage rate.

"We're trying to get people to use their seat belt all the time, and currently there is a large percentage who do, but a bulk only sometimes wear their seat belt. We're trying to get those people to make a habit of wearing their seat belt all the time even when they're making a quick trip to the store or the bank.

"Many feel they only need to wear it on long trips or on the interstate, but a majority of car crashes take place within 25 miles of their home."

Farris said it was in 1990 that President Bush made it a mandatory goal of 70 percent seat-belt use by 1992. At that time, she said, only 46 percent of all Americans were buckling up.

"In 1992, Missouri joins 13 other states in reaching 70 percent seat- belt use. I believe that it was the efforts from areas like Cape Girardeau that led us to this state goal," said West.

Farris said the city of Cape Girardeau reaching the 70 percent usage rate is a big accomplishment because not many cities are that high.

"We are really pleased that the city reached its goal," Galnore said. "It couldn't have been done without community support.

"We had a 60 percent rate in the spring and we increased that by 10 percent. That's a major accomplishment because it takes many groups and agencies to get that done."