Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 5, 1995 TAG: 9507050001
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Most Americans do fasten their seat belts, but that's not enough. The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration set a buckle-up goal of 70 percent for 1992, and that percentage still hasn't been reached.
The best estimate of seat-belt use in the United States is based on the administration's National Occupant Protection Use Survey conducted for the first time in 1994. It found 63 percent of passenger-car occupants used seat belts, but only 50 percent of the people in vans, pickups and utility vehicles fastened them.
In Canada, nine out of 10 Canadian drivers hook up their seat belts, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The difference is achieved, Canadian officials say, because of ``safety promotion and enforcement'' efforts.
Failure to buckle up in Canada carries fines ranging from $25 to $1,000. In Ontario as of January 1994, a beltless driver gets two demerits.
States need laws that allow police to stop motorists for belt violations, said institute Senior Vice President Allan Williams. Only 10 states have them, however.
One North Carolina city used an Uncle Sam Wants You theme for posters featuring the police chief and the message that the cops were looking for beltless drivers.
I am annoyed by store clerks who ask for a work telephone number when I pay by check for an item.
I don't give out my work number, but I try to be nice in refusing. The clerks, after all, don't make these policies; they adhere to the policies of the companies that employ them.
The work phone number is one more bit of information that could help a store find you if your check bounces, said Billy Duncan, manager of Leggett Outlet Center.
Employees at his store ``are told to ask. But if someone says `no,' they don't press it,'' he said.
A Blockbuster Video manager said employees have been told to ask for the number so that Checkcare Enterprises has another way to find a customer who writes a bad check.
``There's not much we can do if people refuse,'' the worker said. ``We're tugged on one side by Checkcare and on the other side by the customer.''
It depends upon what ``type of market'' it is, said a sales executive with Checkcare in Columbus, Ga. The number can be helpful in finding a person whose check bounces, but, in fact, most bad checks are collected after the check writer gets a letter from the collection agency.
Also, the worker said, the fact that a merchant has a credit card number on file for a customer doesn't protect the store from a bad check from that customer. The amount still owed after a check is returned can't be charged to credit cards, she noted.
Efforts to avoid - or collect - bad checks have prompted some stores to refuse checks except when customers have photo IDs, said Duncan of the Leggett Outlet.
When Duncan was in the Fredericksburg store, customers paying with a check there were always asked for a photo ID, he said.
That form of identification is gaining popularity. Hecht's recently informed its charge account customers that a photo ID would be required when a purchase is charged. Most people probably won't object, because it protects the consumer.
by CNB