SUMMERTIME BLUES SAFETY FAIR SATURDAY

JACKSON -- After dropping off older daughters Cassie and Erica at school, Vickie Rinehart was waiting at an intersection with her 3-year-old daughter, Sydnie, when she accidentally bumped the car in front of her.

The collision, such as it was, released the car's two front-seat air bags, breaking the windshield and causing $3,200 in damage to the vehicle's interior. Rinehart's nose and arm were bruised. Sydnie, fortunately, was in her car seat in the back and was unharmed.

One reason Rinehart knew where her youngest child belonged is her membership in the Noon Optimist Club. The club -- which is participating in Saturday's Summertime Blues Safety Fair in downtown Jackson -- promotes the Always Buckle Children in the Back Seat program.

The Jackson Police Department will operate the Summertime Blues Safety Fair from 1-4 p.m. Saturday in the NationsBank parking lot at Main and Russell. They will conduct a seat belt survey and give away gifts to those who are wearing one.

Lt. Bill Bonney said no tickets will be issued to those who are motioned into the parking lot.

In the first safety fair seat belt survey two years ago, only about 40 percent of the people in vehicles were buckled up, Bonney said. That number improved to 50 percent last year. By law, every person in a car or truck must wear a seat belt. "We didn't have a lot of compliance," Bonney said.

National surveys have found that only about 60 percent of children are buckled up on every ride. Nearly 80 percent of those children are improperly buckled.

The general rule is that children should ride in back until they're large enough to handle the blow an air bag produces. "You have to go by size. Even a small lady can be killed," said Dixie Moore, who is in charge of the Noon Optimist Club's program for the safety fair.

Generally, no child under 10 should be allowed to ride in the front seat of a vehicle with air bags. Most of the child fatalities attributable to air bags were due to broken necks sustained because the child was so short.

A child of 5 usually is large enough to wear an adult seat belt in the back seat.

Anyone who sits in the front seat is advised to put the seat back as far as possible.

Rinehart is an insurance agent who pays attention to every accident she passes on the road.

"I always ask if the air bag goes off. It's amazing how may accidents were worse than mine and the air bags didn't go off," she said.

The experience left her wondering how safe they are. But, she says, "Someday one will probably save my life and I'll love it to death."

The air bags episode convinced Sydnie that she doesn't want to ride in the front. "When she saw that, she won't ride in front if I gave her candy," Rinehart said.