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(Washington-AP) -- A consumer group says seat belts don't protect people well enough in rollover crashes.
Public Citizen wants Congress to require new vehicle safety standards in a highway spending bill expected to pass this summer.
The death rate from rollovers has grown with the rising popularity of sport utility vehicles. Public Citizen says about two-thousand people wearing seat belts are killed in rollover crashes each year, most of them crushed by the vehicles' roofs. Others are ejected because the belts worked improperly.
The group wants the government to require stronger roofs and seat belts that lock when a vehicle rolls.
The Senate's version of the transportation bill requires new standards for vehicle performance by 2008.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
