CRASH SIMULATOR MAKES PAINFUL POINT ABOUT USE OF SAFETY BELTS

While a dozen students watch, the rolling simulator -- made from a truck -- begins to spin with two dummies in the cab.

The spinning is slow at first but speeds up to a mercuric blur. One of the dummies begins to bob and bounce around inside the cab.

"It's like putting a load of laundry in the spin cycle," said one Southeast Missouri State University student Tuesday as she watched the rolling simulator.

Suddenly, the bouncing dummy flies out of the open truck window and lands on the pavement with an audible thud. The other dummy sits safely in the cab of the truck.

"That would hurt," one male student muttered as he walked by the demonstration outside the University Center.

The difference between the two dummies? One wasn't such a dummy: He was smart enough to have on his safety belt.

"The biggest killer in automobile accidents is passengers being thrown out of the vehicle," said Sgt. Brent Davis of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which coordinated the demonstrations.

The rolling demonstrator was at the university for several hours Tuesday as part of the university's weeklong Health Fest. The simulator will be there today between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to show students and faculty that buckling up is smart, Davis said.

While alcohol and speed are contributing factors to many accidents, Davis said that if more people would wear seat belts there would be fewer fatalities.

He hopes that by taking the simulator to schools, fairs and other events, more people will buckle up.

He said that when a vehicle is rolling like the simulator shows, it is traveling at speeds faster than 40 mph. He said that it is not humanly possible to hold on while a vehicle spins that fast.

"If a mother is holding onto her baby and then has a wreck that sends the car rolling, you can't survive," Davis said. "It's going to kill that baby and probably the mother, too."

There are five such simulators in Missouri, Davis said. He said he shares this one with St. Louis. The others are in Springfield, Kansas City and there are to in Jefferson City.

The trucks were donated by General Motors.