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OTHER NEWS - Aug. 20, 1992

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From Times Staff and Wire Reports

GM Asked to Replace Rear Seat Belts: A consumer group has urged General Motors to recall millions of its cars and fit their rear seats with lap-and-shoulder safety belts, citing $3.2 million the auto maker was ordered to pay to a paralyzed teen-ager. A jury in Moundsville, W. Va., decided Aug. 11 that the auto maker should pay damages to Gregory Johnson, 17, who was left a paraplegic after a March, 1988, accident that killed his father and injured his brother. Both Johnson and his brother, Andy, were wearing lap belts in the rear seat of the family’s 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass. In a statement, GM said the company believes that the design of the rear seat belts “was appropriate for the vehicle involved in this tragic accident.”

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