YAKIMA, Wash.– Washington State troopers are once again encouraging everyone in vehicles to wear seatbelts, whether it’s daytime or nighttime.
This comes after a deadly crash on Interstate 82 in Yakima Saturday morning.
20-year-old Jazmine Gutierrez died at the scene, while three people who were in the vehicle she rear-ended weren’t hurt.
However, out of the four people involved, not a single person was wearing their seatbelt.
Washington State Patrol trooper Chris Thorson tells us, the seatbelt statistics for Washington in 2023, which sounds promising in the daytime, but not so much at night.
“People in Washington are one of the highest compliance [rates] as far as wearing seatbelts in the whole nation, at around 93-95 percent during daylight hours,” Thorson said. “That dips all the way down to 50-55 percent at night.”
This latest accident happened at 2:30 a.m.
Thorson also says Gutierrez was driving at a high rate of speed, when she rear-ended the second vehicle.
“We continue to see people driving very fast on the highways around Yakima and Tri-Cities, and this is very concerning,” Thorson said. “If you would just follow the speed limit recommended on your highway, it’s gonna give you enough time to react, to avoid crashes with other cars.
Trooper Thorson also tells us that 50-55 percent of the fatal accidents the state patrol responded to last year in Yakima and Tri cities, involved people not wearing their seatbelts.
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