LACK OF SEAT BELT BLAMED IN DEATH.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The California Highway Patrol's Click it or Ticket seat-belt campaign was in full force this holiday weekend; yet a lack of safety restraints was blamed for the death of a woman thrown from a car in a freeway crash.

Freeway signs flashed urging motorists and passengers to buckle up on freeways through Santa Clarita, and extra CHP officers were on duty through the holiday weekend to help enforce the safety belt law, Officer Wendy Hahn said Tuesday. The number of citations issued had yet to be tallied.

A 64-year-old Hawthorne woman who wasn't wearing a seat belt was killed and four others, including two children, suffered minor injuries in a crash on Interstate 5 in Valencia. The driver lost control of a van when a tire blew and the woman passenger was thrown onto the road. The dead woman's husband, who was wearing his seat belt, suffered only minor injuries, CHP officials said.

On Monday afternoon, a speeding motorcyclist died on a rural stretch of Bouquet Canyon Road when he collided with a Ford Mustang north of Vasquez Canyon Road, Hahn said.

Nicole Lind, 16, of Saugus, was making a legal U-turn when the unidentified motorcycle rider, a man believed to be about 25, hit her car at about 100 mph, according to the CHP report. Neither Lind nor her passenger, 18-year-old John Nelson of Valencia, was seriously hurt.

``At this point, he's at fault,'' Hahn said of the biker. ``If she starts her turn and there's no sign anybody's around, she's not taking away anyone's right-of-way.''

The CHP arrested 16 motorists from Friday through Monday on suspicion of drunk driving, compared with 28 during the same period last year, Hahn said. Alcohol did not appear to play a role in either of the weekend's fatal crashes.