Highway death toll down in ’96

AUGUSTA — Maine’s highway death toll dropped by 11 percent in 1996, the first year of the state’s mandatory seat belt law, the Department of Public Safety reported Thursday.

Officials said 165 people were killed on Maine’s highways last year, compared with 187 in 1995. The yearly average during the past decade has been 210.

If the 1996 figure stands, the death toll would be the lowest in 37 years. The safest year in recent memory was 1959, when 136 people lost their lives.

The seat belt law and stepped-up enforcement of drunken-driving laws were among the factors that officials said contributed to the lower death toll.

“This is an 11 percent drop in highway fatalities during Maine’s first year of the mandatory seat belt law and the numbers are very encouraging,” said Col. Alfred R. Skolfield, commissioner of public safety and chief of the Maine State Police.