LOS ANGELES — Family security doors will be shut down on the nation’s roads as part of a nationwide effort to prevent suicides and other accidents caused by unsafe cars.
The new measures, which go into effect July 1, will include doors and windows in cars and other vehicles that do not have locks, including those with a rear window or window that can be opened by a hand signal or a foot-operated device.
The new measures will also apply to passenger cars.
“There’s been a lot of discussion around cars being safer in the past couple of years,” said the California Highway Patrol’s Tom Gormley.
“This is a really good first step.”
Gormley said the changes will take effect in the state by July 1.
It’s unclear how many cars will be affected, but some experts have said it could be as high as a quarter of a million vehicles.
The CHP has been warning for some time that car fatalities were on the rise, and some states have seen a spike in car crashes.
The move is expected to cost the states $8.2 billion in the next fiscal year.
Gormly said the state had not yet begun analyzing the costs of the changes.
He said it’s also possible that some states could see more deaths.
Goryak said he’s worried about the new measures but said he has faith in the system.
“We are going to have enough of these accidents,” he said.
“We have a system that is very, very safe.
We have a safety system in place that is so strong that I can’t imagine what would happen if someone is really stupid.”
Goryakin said he and other CHP officers were surprised by the increase in accidents, but he said he understands why people were frustrated.
“You can’t get any less frustrated than we are,” he told the Los Angeles Times.