Local News in Brief : Officers Wearing Seat Belts Unhurt
Two Los Angeles police officers crashed while pursuing a pair of suspected auto thieves in El Monte early Thursday, but both lawmen were wearing seat belts and escaped injury, authorities said.
The officers crashed on Peck Road off the San Bernardino Freeway about 1:30 a.m. when their car went out of control, skidded into a chain-link fence and hit a parked car. Lt. Ron Seban said the fact that both officers were wearing seat belts was “probably why they didn’t get hurt.”
The suspects, two teen-agers, pulled over and surrendered to other pursuing officers a short distance from where the crash occurred and were arrested on suspicion of grand theft auto.
Police Chief Daryl F. Gates this week ordered all officers to wear three-point seat restraints after the deaths of three officers in a collision in the Skid Row area.
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