Green River Area Development District Regional Transportation Planner Gina Boaz announced several plans currently in the works for Union County at last Thursday's meeting of the task force.

The biggest item on the table was a Health and Safety Fair to be held Saturday, May 8 in the county. Similar fairs have been held in Henderson, Daviess and Webster counties with much success. Kentucky State Police Public Information Officer Mark Applin volunteered to secure a location in the county to hold the fair.

The fair will address a broad spectrum of safety issues with input and participation by many different agencies and organizations. More will be announced in The Advocate as to time and location as the plans are developed.

County Judge Executive Larry Joe Jenkins emphasized to the task force the need for inspection of child safety seats. He'd like the fiscal court to set up a time and location in the county where families could bring their child safety seats for inspection and possible replacement if they are found to be defective.

He pointed out that many families have perfectly good safety seats that their children have outgrown. He suggested establishing a program to collect these seats, have them inspected for safety, and getting them to people who could put them to good use.

"I know we have several of these in our own garage that could be used by someone," said Jenkins.

Regional Transportation Planner Boaz said she would be contacting Union County High School regarding doing a seat belt check at the high school. This program involves a visual screening of students arriving by car at the high school to determine what percentage are obeying seat belt laws. According to Boaz, she did such a check at Webster County High School last month, and of the 163 cars she observed, 63 percent of the drivers were wearing seat belts. She noted for Trooper Applin that there were 30 vehicles whose windows were tinted so dark she could not observe the drivers, and said someone would be speaking to the school's students about rules regarding darkly tinted windows.

Applin did a similar check at Henderson County High School, and noted the rate of compliance with seat belt laws among that county's students was only 43 percent.

Applin told the task force there had been ". . . a lot of fatalities in Kentucky this year involving teens, many of whom were not wearing seat belts."

Applin backed this up with some gruesome statistics. According to the trooper, there were six traffic fatalities in Union County in 2003, two of which were pedestrians. Overall, the fatality rate in the KSP's local district was down by seven deaths from 2002. Of the fatalities in the district during 2003, 40 percent could be attributed to driver inattention. He noted that the KSP worked 17 accidents in Henderson County last year attributed to cell phone usage by drivers. Fortunately, none of these resulted in a fatality.

District-wide, 38 people were killed in traffic accidents. Of these, nine deaths were alcohol related and two were pedestrians.

With regard to Morganfield's new bypass, Applin said statistics show that there is nothing wrong with the roadway itself. He stated there were heavy rumble strips in place on all roads approaching an intersection with the bypass and that stop signs at the intersections were twice the normal size.

"The deaths on this bypass unfortunately have largely been the result of inattention by drivers," said Applin.

Trooper Applin noted that he has begun posting fatality figures Monday through Friday to the media in an effort to keep the public aware of driver safety issues.

Transportation Planner Boaz concurred with others at the meeting that the vandalism and theft of traffic signs has become a major safety issue. The task force plans to start a public awareness campaign of the importance of keeping the signs up and intact.

Said Boaz, "This includes 'road-closed' signs, 'bridge-closed' signs, and 'high-water' signs, as well as stop signs and other traffic signs."

Judge Jenkins noted he has received phone calls about young people who have traffic signs on the walls of their bedrooms, and their parents know about them.