The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Whhby Prm, WmJnes-à-- Mây 17. 1 M, Pap 23 ................... 9 Imm cays . . ... . ............ ... ...... ........... dose cIiý -ces flot wM. eImImkiI km 1: -e -k mmmmm::mIIIýýIII mmmmmmk.;,- Mk Ils- ilà kf --- ýmmmmm: 1, - -" m .. m, ý c9m ýIý: QUI 5.k ......... ............... by JiU Mlntosh Blocking'the view I suppose the moral of this particulae columncould be ' Glass is transparent for a reason.' The roason is mostly aesthotic when the glass is in your hotel room overlooking the mountains. When the glass is in your car, it's a lifesaver it tends te lot you se. what's around you so you don't rum into things. For. this reason, I can't understand why drivers go te, such pains te, covor up the view. Iset soveral miles the other day folowing a atuffed animal revue. These cars are immediately identifiable by the row of plush toys on, the parcel, dock, al arranged shoulder-to-shoulder with their heada facing the trunk, so they cari enjoy watching the drivers behind them. Sometimes they're widely assorted, but Itrue enthusiasts pick a theme and stick te it. This might be only stuffed dalmations, dolls with crocheted dresses, or teddy bears. rvè seen one car that features ail seven dwarves, sadly isngSnow White (it's only a small gcar, I guess she wouldn't fit). Variations on this theme include basebail hat collections, needlepoint pillow collections and tin horse displays. The common denoninators for this group are complote coverago of the parcel dock, a loas of anywhere firm four inches te a foot of window visibility, and the fact that they al look pretty siily. Next are what I cllthe "crown and tissue box" crowd. These cars have a gold crown air freshener on the dash and a plastic gold filigree tissue dispenser in the back window. (I know theyre sold separately,, but just try te, find a car that has ono without the other). These don't take Up a lot of window space, but the box on the parcel'shoîf cari become a deadly projectile in a collision -- one with sharp corners to boot. It may flot weigh much, but imagine being hit in the back of the head with one doing 60 miles per hour. rm sure a mathematician could figure out the exact velocity, but the bottom line ia, it'. gonna hurt. 0f course,- up-to-the-minute members of this crowd have forsaken the crowna for the newer "parlour lamp" -'style of air froshenor, with swinging crystals to add to the appeal. The taste police should be pufling this crowd over. Now we comne to the fruit-salad-on-the-mirror bunch. Rear-view ndrrors are such versatile items. Not only cari you use them te see behind you, bu they also make great holdors for glass-blocIng goodhes. 1The possibilities are endiess. Fvo spotted animal tails, booties, pagodas, garters, compact discs, Indian dreain catcher, stuffed animais (Who obviously want te see out the front window, rather than -stand up against the back one), photographs and basebails -- and those are juI5t the amateurs. Professional fruit salad drivers corne up with combinations of items, until they have a clump of goodies six inches or more across swinging from the nurror. This object now shielda the right-hand side of the windsheld from view. Make a turn in one of these cars, and you simply can't see a pedestrian stepping off the curb, a car bacIng out of a driveway or any of the hundreda of potential accidents facing a motorist each day. SEE PAGE 39 JEXOTICA COLLECTABLE EXOTIC CAR Company partners Gene Yackison and- Katherine Q'Toole with sorne of the many finely detailed mode! cars they carry in their new Whibystoe.Photo by Mark Reeso, Whltby Free Pres Whitby below average in buckleaup Resulta 0f the April 29 one-day seat boit count shows that 13 per cent 0f Ontario drivers surveyed stili risk their lives biy not buckling up. More than 280,000 cars were observed in more than 130 communities acros the province in the community-driven volunteer survey. Burlington and the Northern Ontario community Of Dubreuilville had the highest seat boIt use rate with 99 per cent. The Lake Erie community 0f Port Rowan had the lowest ranIng with only 44 per cent and Emo, in Ontariols northwest, foilowed with 58 per cent. Whitby had a rate 0f 84.4 per cent; the Ontario average was 87.1 per cent. Local community policing committesg ubIic health units,. OPP, igh aoosand businesses organized voluntoors for the count. Young male. drivers topped the liat of noën- wearers. A, significant 'number of middle-aged women wore also spotted not wearing seat beîts as were many smail truck and tew-truck drivers. Seat boîta must bo worn corrotly, over the shoulder with the laP portion snug and low on the hipa, te bo effective. Drivers riSk the same $90 fine and two demerit points for misuse as they do for non-use. "Many volunteers teld us how concerned they were about the number 0f young children unbuckled," saya Christine Gardner, campaign co-ardinator. "They would see parents buckled up, while their teddlers bouncod around in the back seat 0f the car.' Rural communities generally showed lower-seat boIt use rates than urban areas. '1>ople have a perception that seat boîta are *only necessary on busy highways," says Barbara Biagrove, public education manager, at the Ministry of Transportation. "They don't realize that the unexpected is just as likely te happen on isolated country roada or i the middle of the cityr.u The Whitby, checks were carried out at the four corners (Brock and Dumdas streets). You wiII corne for the price... and stay for the service! '(ou wilI corne for the price... and stay for the service! You wiII corne for the price... and stay for the service! -4 Experiencethe OwascoFeeling 0 Salssevie, eain, odyshpai maeslui U)-- * Q ASO 86-41-35INTE -.~ er16,0 ie n ee .-TP OLRFR ESFQ C 16,0 k ooohm cc Yo il orefote rc.. ndsavfr h srie!Yu l! onefrth ieHOadMEv o hesrvc!&PVO RT ADEK-OROT cc