JEFFERSON CITY - About 900 people died in traffic crashes on Missouri roads in 2004 and most had one thing in common: they weren't wearing seatbelts.
"There are impact forces, even at a very slow speed of five miles per hour," stated LeAnne Depue of the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety. "You really are in a seat, you're on an incline, you're certainly at a speed, and physics is physics."
Depue's group, along with Central Missouri State University, bought a convincer for each of the state's nine highway patrol troops, which will take them to schools to show how the devices work.
Listen to the MO Coalition of Roadway Safety Radio Promotion
"If anybody needs to be at a 100% rate, it's our teen drivers," explained Col. Roger Stottlemyre. "They're involved in more accidents proportionally than any other age group."
The patrol also plans to display convincers at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia this August. Stottlemyre hopes the convincers help the state reach its goal of fewer than 1,000 annual traffic deaths by 2008.
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