POLICE TO HOST SAFETY FAIR TODAY

If you're cruising down Mount Auburn Road today and find yourself being corralled into the Boatmen's Bank parking lot by police officers, be sure you're wearing your seat belt.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department, in cooperation with the Community Traffic Safety Program, the Missouri Division of Highway Safety and Boatmen's Bank, will host its annual Safety Check and Awareness Fair at the Mount Auburn bank facility today.

Traffic will be diverted from Mount Auburn into the bank parking lot from 1-4 p.m., where a number of volunteer police officers will check drivers, front-seat passengers and children for proper safety restraints.

The police department will reward those in compliance with Missouri seat-belt laws with a black coffee mug. Drivers hauling the first 75 properly-restrained children will receive a furry "buckle-up buddy" that can be affixed to a child's safety belt.

Those who are not wearing seat belts will be given a "ticket" that extols the life-saving virtues of seat-belt usage.

A recent survey conducted by the department showed about 71 percent seat-belt usage by area motorists.

Sharee Galnore, a member of the Community Traffic Safety Program, hopes to reach 80 percent by 1996.

"That's not so far-fetched," she said. "More and more people are wearing seat belts every day, and it's the children who are getting their parents and their peers the message."

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department, Cape County Private Ambulance Service and members of the police department will be on hand in the lower level of the bank's parking lot with emergency vehicles for residents to tour. The Cape Girardeau Area Safe Kids Coalition and Mothers Against Drunk Driving will have information stands, where people will be able to register for prizes to be given away at the end of the day. The grand prize is four tickets to Six Flags in St. Louis.

Nationally-renowned crash-dummies Vince and Larry will also be on hand to have their pictures take with children at no cost to mom or dad.

"The purpose of this event is to create seat-belt awareness and thereby increase usage rates," said Galnore. "According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 25,000 occupants of passenger cars are killed each year -- more than all the nation's homicides. Several hundred thousand more are seriously injured in traffic crashes.

"Increasing compliance with safety belt laws could save nearly half of those lives and prevent many thousands of severe injuries," she said. "It is our hope that through this campaign, which emphasizes enforcement and education, and with continued efforts throughout the year, we will be able to achieve this goal."