Summer seat belt use tops area officer concerns

Like the Missouri State Highway Patrol, which earlier announced its involvement in the Click It or Ticket campaign, the Cape Girardeau Police Department will also participate in the program Monday through June 6, including Memorial Day weekend.

That same week the Illinois State Police will conduct Special Traffic Enforcement Patrols (s.T.E.P.) Wave 2. Both efforts are funded through a grant each state receives from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The state division of Highway Safety and the Missouri Safety Center awarded the Cape Girardeau Police Department a $4,000 grant to assist in the effort, said traffic supervisor Sgt. Jack Wimp. Officers who have signed up for special overtime duty will patrol throughout the city looking for traffic violators and checking for seat belt and child restraint use.

Missouri officers cannot stop a car only for a seat belt violation unless they see that children are unrestrained, Wimp said. They will, however, check if they stop the driver for speeding, driving while intoxicated or any other traffic-related offense.

Across the river in Illinois District 22 s.T.E.P. details will be conducted in Massac and Union counties where the Illinois Department of Transportation has determined that special attention needs to be focused, said Trooper Dale R. Poole in Ullin, Ill.

Unlike Missouri, Illinois officers can stop a vehicle if they see that the occupants are not belted in.

"That came into effect last year," Poole said. "I can't tell you an exact number, but we have issued a lot more tickets. It's not that we want to write more tickets. We would prefer to see everybody wearing their belts."

Poole said statistics in Illinois have shown that people who wear seat belts are 50 percent more likely to escape injury or death in a car crash. Troopers there will also be looking for other traffic violations such as speeding and driving while intoxicated.

Both agencies want to save lives and property.

"What we're trying to do is increase seat belt usage rates to save lives," Wimp said. "Statistics show that someone is killed in a major traffic crash every seven minutes on a Missouri highway. Using a seat belt and child restraint is one of the best ways to prevent death and personal injury."

Wimp said that one problem with child restraints is that parents don't always install them correctly. He said that Sharee Galnore and Lynn Ware, child restraint technicians at the police department's safe communities division, will check a resident's child restraint seat to make sure it's installed in the vehicle correctly and to see if the child using it is in the seat properly. Interested people can call Galnore at 335-6621, extension 1728 or Ware at extension 1762 to arrange an appointment.

"One of the worst things that can happen is to respond to an accident where a small child has been killed or seriously injured," Wimp said. "If a seat belt or a child restraint can save someone's life, that's what we want."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160