Local News in Brief : Countywide : County’s Overall Deaths Decline but Suicides Up

Three hundred fewer people died in the county last year compared to 1986, but deaths from suicides and traffic accidents were up slightly, the coroner’s office reported Friday.

Of the 13,500 deaths recorded in 1987, 180 people had evidence of heroin or cocaine in their system, the coroner’s annual statistical report said.

There were no comparable statistics available for drug-related deaths in 1986, although a county toxicologist, who compiles the statistics, said the number of such deaths appears to have remained constant from 1986 to 1987.

He noted, however, that there seemed to be a marked increase in the number of people who died after combining heroin and cocaine, or “speed-balling.”

The occupations of those whose deaths may have been caused by drug overdoses included physicians, teachers, nurses, an air traffic controller and tradesmen.

The youngest drug-related death was a 2-month-old girl and the oldest, a 62-year-old man, the report said.

It said 128 people in the county died of acquired immune deficiency syndrome during 1987. The statistics for 1986 were not broken down to reflect AIDS deaths.

The deaths of 299 people were listed as suicides in 1987, compared to 281 in 1986. In 1987, 317 people were killed in traffic accidents, compared to 299 in 1986.