Manistique woman & MSP Iron Mountain Post receiving traffic safety awards

A Manistique woman and the Michigan State Police Iron Mountain Post will both be honored this week for their commitment to traffic safety.

The Governor’s Traffic Safety Advisory Commission will present Diane Curry and Iron Mountain Post personnel with awards at the group’s annual awards luncheon in East Lansing on Wednesday.

Curry started the Kids Always Ride Safely program, or KARS, in 2011. It offers car seats at a discount to low-income families. The program also includes training on how to properly install the car seats. Since the program began, car seat distribution to families in need in the seven participating U.P. counties has more than doubled.

The commission says the Iron Mountain Post recently noticed that the seat belt use rate in Dickinson and Iron Counties was about 70%, compared to 93% for the state as a whole. The post used aggressive enforcement, community presentations and events, road signs and other methods to attack the problem. The group says that the post boosted seat belt use in the area by 28% and decreased the number of accidents with injuries by 30%.

The awards luncheon is part of the annual Michigan Traffic Safety Summit, which takes place in East Lansing from Tuesday through Thursday of this week. Three Outstanding Traffic Safety Achievement Awards and three long-term awards will be presented at the luncheon. There’s no word on which type of award Curry and the Iron Mountain Post will receive.