Crash Kills Back-Seat Passenger

An early-morning crash on the San Diego Freeway killed an 18-year-old Huntington Beach woman not wearing a safety belt, an incident that law enforcement said underscores a persistent problem: Many back-seat passengers don’t bother to buckle up.

It is too early in the investigation to say whether a seat belt could have saved the life of Khen Thi Nguyen, but authorities believe the safety belts worn by the driver of the vehicle and the front-seat passenger helped protect them from more serious injuries. It’s a scenario that California Highway Patrol officers said they see too frequently.

After years of listening to safety warnings, most front-seat motorists generally buckle up. Safety belt use in the back seat, however, is less common.

“They’re in the back and they don’t feel that they’re going to hit the dashboard,” said California Highway Patrol spokesman Steve Kohler, adding that many back-seat passengers continue to ignore the law, putting themselves and others at an increased risk.

“Wearing a safety belt is the least expensive and most effective protection you can buy,” said Kohler. “And that means wearing it every time, on every trip.”

The 1993 mandatory seat belt law is considered to be a major factor in the overall reduction of traffic fatalities in California. Deaths in the state dropped from 3,028 deaths in 1991 to 2,731 deaths in 1996, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But seat belt usage continues to be a problem: Nearly 54% of the 2,731 people killed in California in 1996 were not wearing seat belts, according to federal statistics. While most law enforcement agencies do not keep track of front- and back-seat usage of safety belts, law enforcement officials said their firsthand experience at traffic scenes tells them that too many back-seat passengers ignore their safety belts.

“There are some people who think that you’re less in need of a seat belt in the back than front,” added Brian O’Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a Virginia-based nonprofit group funded by auto insurers.

The three Orange County teens were traveling south on the San Diego Freeway near the transition to the Corona del Mar Freeway at 12:50 a.m. Tuesday when the accident occurred, authorities said.

The freeway veers sharply at the transition area, and the driver failed to negotiate the curve. The Honda ran off the left roadway edge and struck the center divider wall. The impact crushed the small car, authorities said.

Excessive speed may also have played a role in the crash, authorities said.

The driver, Antoine Thien Vu, 18, of Laguna Hills, and the car’s front passenger, Duyen Thi Nguyen, 16, of Huntington Beach, were wearing seat belts, while Nguyen was unbuckled in the back, officials said.

Vu and the front-seat passenger were rushed to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with serious injuries. Their families have asked that no information be released about the teens’ conditions.

The back-seat passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. The Orange County coroner’s office said that the cause of death was a ruptured heart.

The CHP investigation into the incident will eventually address whether a seat belt could have prevented Nguyen’s fatal injuries, said CHP officials said.

“The bottom line is [in a crash] you continue moving forward until something stops you. That could be the hard front seat or even the person in front of you,” O’Neill said.

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Buckle Up

Orange County’s seat belt usage rate is high compared to Los Angeles County and the state as a whole. But despite the mandatory seat belt law that took effect in 1993, a number of people still fail to buckle up, as illustrated by the most recent available traffic accident fatality and injury rates. Those involved in injury and fatal accidents and the percentages of those not wearing seat belts:

Orange County

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1991 1996 Killed 123 127 % not wearing seat belt 71% 46% Injured 22,361 19,252 % not wearing seat belt 28% 12%

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Los Angeles County

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1991 1996 Killed 603 484 % not wearing seat belt 81% 63% Injured 102,672 77,900 % not wearing seat belt 63% 35%

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California

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1991 1996 Killed 3,028 2,731 % not wearing seat belt 76% 54% Injured 291,508 256,562 % not wearing seat belt 48% 23%

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Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Researched by JANICE JONES DODDS/Los Angeles Times