`THUMBS UP, BUCKLE UP': NEW PROGRAM TO ZERO IN ON SEAT-BELT VIOLATORS

Beginning this weekend, motorists who don't buckle up will face a greater risk of being charged with a seat-belt violation.

The Missouri Division of Highway Safety is using the Memorial Day weekend to try to renew interest in its seat-belt campaign, and Cape Girardeau police are obliging.

The effort coincides with the national "Buckle Up Avoid the Summertime Blues" campaign sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Sgt. Carl Kinnison of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

The state campaign, called "Thumbs Up, Buckle Up" actually began in August and will conclude this September with the Labor Day holiday, he said. It encourages law enforcement officers to tug on their seat belts when they observe a motorist who is unbuckled, while giving the thumbs-up sign to motorists who are buckled up.

Kinnison said Cape Girardeau police officers are being asked to use such tactics.

"In addition to that, we're asking them to increase the number of tickets they issue for seat-belt violations," he said.

Patrolmen are being asked to write more of the tickets when they pull motorists over for other violations, rather than just giving warnings when seat belts are not used.

In Missouri, Kinnison said, law enforcement officers are prohibited from stopping a motorist just for not wearing his or her seat belt. The seat-belt law also only applies to front-seat passengers.

The percentage of time Cape Girardeau Police officers spend issuing tickets for seat-belt violations, as opposed to warnings, varies from officer to officer, said Kinnison.

J.R. "Buddy" Davis, a patrolman in the department's traffic safety division, estimated that if he pulls over a speeder who isn't wearing a seat belt, he'll warn that person 60 percent of the time. With an accident, he said, he'll write a ticket 75 percent of the time for the same offense.

Kinnison said representatives of both the Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the state Division of Highway Safety have concluded that one way to increase the percentage of people using seat belts is for officers to give out more tickets for seat-belt violations.

"We've gone through a variety of education campaigns; enforcement has been relatively slack," he said. "Now, they're asking law enforcement agencies to become more strict in the enforcement of the seat-belt law."

On the national level, President George Bush has directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to increase the percentage of seat-belt use from the current 49 percent to 70 percent by 1992, said Kinnison.

Information released by the Division of Highway Safety says safety belts could save more than 300 lives each year in Missouri and 9,000 nationally. More than half of the car passengers killed in accidents could be saved by safety belts, highway safety officials maintain.

Statewide, it's estimated that safety belts could prevent or reduce 7,000 injuries. Nationally, the amount of injuries prevented or reduced could be 327,000.

Said Kinnison, "There's not really any logical argument for not wearing seat belts."

A person charged with a seat-belt violation in Cape Girardeau is faced with paying a $10 fine and $12 in court costs. If the violation accompanies another traffic ticket, the court cost is paid on the other ticket, said a Cape Girardeau Municipal Court spokesperson.

Cape Girardeau Police wrote about 675 tickets for seat-belt violations in 1990, the department's annual report shows.