WA: Seatbelt warning after man dies in 4 WD accident

AAP General News (Australia)
12-31-1998
WA: Seatbelt warning after man dies in 4 WD accident

PERTH, Dec 31 AAP - Police have emphasised the importance of wearing seatbelts after a
26-year-old man was thrown from his four-wheel-drive and killed yesterday afternoon.

"A seat belt does not appear to have been worn," a police spokesman said.

"If he hadn't been ejected he would probably have been alive today."

The man failed to negotiate a bend just after midday near his home town of Bridgetown,
267km south of Perth.

His car skidded before rolling over several times, throwing the man from the vehicle and
killing him.

His death brought to eight Western Australia's holiday road toll.

Police were not including in the toll the death of a truck driver yesterday after his
vehicle struck a tree.

"We're waiting on the post mortem results before counting that in the toll, because it
appears he may have had heart failure before the crash," the spokesman said.

The total number of fatalities on the state's roads this year was 225.

At this time last year 196 people had died on the road in WA.

AAP kbw/rap

KEYWORD: TOLL WA

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