CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : CHP Releases Data on Seat Belts, Deaths

The California Highway Patrol said 925 people died in traffic accidents during a nine-month period solely because they were not wearing seat belts. A CHP study concluded that 48% of the 1,913 people killed in traffic accidents between Sept. 1, 1989, and July 1, 1990, would have survived if they had been wearing safety belts. “That’s 925 people in a nine-month period who died needlessly, in the sense that they would be alive today if only they had buckled up,” CHP Commissioner Maury Hannigan said. The study counted only accidents in CHP jurisdictions.