Seatbelt safety

Local police, Key Club members tell youth to 'buckle up'

This week local public schools and Kennett High School Key Club members, joined with the Kennett Police Department in promoting national Child Passenger Safety Week, encouraging local youth to "Buckle Up!"

The purpose of the program, in addition to promoting seat belt safety and child restraint laws, is to reduce roadway fatalities and injuries, specifically among children, according to Captain Steve Cook of the Kennett Police Department (KPD).

(Above) KHS Key Club members remind younger students and their parents of current safety laws regarding booster seats. Key club also provided kids at Masterson Elementary School with pencils and stickers encouraging them to wear their seatbelts. (Below) KPD officers Brandon Moore and Phillip Caldwell give parents info on child-restraint laws in brochure form. See additional photo on Page 10. (Staff photos by Deanna Coronado)

Cook said that car crashes are statistically the number one cause for fatalities among kids, and that nearly 73 percent of all child restraints are not used correctly.

"Regular child safety seat and seatbelt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes, resulting in death," Cook said.

To encourage children and their families to remain safe, high school students involved in the Key Club program campaigned outside of local school campuses this week handing out pencils and stickers to students that focused on child restraint laws and overall seatbelt safety rules. Additionally, as parents pulled up to school to drop their children off, officers with the KPD patrolled the area on foot, doing meet and greets while providing statistical information and propaganda in brochure form pertaining to the cause.

The brochure provided to parents and youth points out on its cover that 7 out of 10 kids are at risk in a traffic crash. The material, sponsored by the Missouri Department of Transportation's "Arrive Alive" program, encourages playing by the rules regarding the state's child restraint law which specifies that:

* Children eight-years-old and over or weighing at least 80 pounds or at a height of at least four-feet, nine-inches tall, shall be secured by a vehicle safety belt.

* Children who are four-years old but less than eight-years of age, or children weighing at least 40 pounds but less than 80 pounds or children less than four- feet, nine-inches tall shall also be secured in child passenger restraint or booster seat appropriate for that child's age.

* Any child weighing less than 40 pounds, regardless of their age, should be secured in a child passenger restraint system appropriate for that age child.

* Less than four-years of age, regardless of weight should be properly secured in a child passenger restraint system age appropriate for that child.

On a state level, Missouri imposes a fine that will not exceed $10 for seat belt violations and will be issued for each person in violation of that law and a fine not to exceed $50 for not properly securing a child in a car seat or booster seat. Along with the initial fines, other fines and penalties may apply.

Locally, Assistant Chief of Police for the KPD, Steve Williams, said that violations found to be occurring in the city will be ticketed by area police, including children not wearing a seat belt or being properly restrained.

The City of Kennett does have in place a local law concerning seat belt violations, including a $10 fine as well as $29.50 in court costs. Additionally, there are also fines including additional court costs for those children that should be in child restraints but aren't. Williams said in this instance it would be up to the courts to determine what fines to impose.

"The department's main focus of patrolling the school grounds is the safety of the children," Williams added.

* Some information used in this story was sourced from a previous DDD article published in August 2010. To learn more about seatbelt safety log on to www.dddnews.com