Victim in Fatal Crash Is a Sobering Reminder of Need for Using Seat Belts

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 authorities 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 reported that the safety belts worn by the driver of the vehicle and the front-seat passenger helped protect them from more serious injuries.

After years of listening to safety warnings, most front-seat motorists generally buckle up. Safetybelt 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 CHP spokesman Steve Kohler.

The 1993 seat belt law allowing police to stop motorists for not wearing a safety belt is considered a major factor in the reduction of traffic fatalities in California, where such deaths dropped from 3,028 in 1991 to 2,731 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.

Although most law enforcement agencies do not keep track of front- and back-seat usage of safety belts, law enforcement officials said their 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,” said Brian O’Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a Virginia-based nonprofit group funded by auto insurers.

The three Orange County teenagers 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, officials said. Khen Thi Nguyen was unbuckled in the back.

Vu and the front-seat passenger were taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with serious injuries.

Their families have asked that no information be released about their conditions.

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

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