A coalition of government and private industry has used television announcements and dramatic testimony in a "Buckle Up" campaign to to boost seat belt use during the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The National Safety Belt Coalition, organized by the National Safety Council, coordinated a series of demonstrations nationwide during the past week to underscore the importance of safety belts."Last year, 580 auto-related fatalities occurred over the Labor Day weekend," said T.C. Gilchrest, coalition chairman and president of the National Safety Council. "If everyone used safety belts throughout the year, as many as 15,000 lives could be saved."

The coalition produced a video package with an interview with Surgeon General Antonia Novello and Jerry Ralph Curry, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In Dallas, the coalition said police joined Parkland Hospital trauma physicians for a safety belt press conference. The Indiana state police superintendent joined the state's director of automotive safety for children and the state president of the American College of Emergency Physicians at a news conference to discuss seat belts.

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The federal government says 45,000 people a year die in traffic accidents and 15,000 of those deaths could be prevented if people used their seatbelts, said Terry Gainer, Illinois state police director.

The coalition's efforts support a corporate, non-profit and local governmental effort to meet a goal of "70 by '92" - 70 percent safety belt use nationwide by 1992.

As part of the effort, the Distilled Spirits Council helped local police generate radio and TV public service announcements and other coverage across the country.

Police in Bibb County, Ga.; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Wichita, Kansas; and Alexandria, La., among others, used the announcement to reach their communities, the coalition said.

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