Seat belts are important: Every car passenger should wear them. But they're not a panacea -- particularly when a vehicle traveling more than 100 MPH loses control. That's what happened yesterday afternoon at 56th Avenue east of E-470. The driver died as a result of the crash in the fifth fatal accident investigated by the Aurora Police Traffic Section this year, while the as-yet-unidentified passenger has been hospitalized.

Read the Aurora PD release after the jump.

Aurora Police Department traffic-operations release:

On May 12, 2009, at about 1:30 pm, Aurora Police received a dispatched call to the area of East 56th Avenue and North Tower Road on a report of a rollover accident. The location was updated to 56th Avenue east of E-470. Arriving Police and Fire units found a Nissan 350Z had left the roadway and rolled over.

Two occupants were located in the vehicle and were still restrained by the seat belts. Unfortunately the driver sustained severe injuries during the accident and was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger was extricated by fire rescue and flown by air ambulance to a local hospital. The passenger is currently in critical condition in the intensive care unit.

The initial investigation revealed the Nissan had been traveling East on 56th Avenue in excess of 100 mph. The driver lost control of the car and rolled into the field.

The excessive speed seems to be the only contributing factor to the accident at this time. Aurora Traffic investigators will be conducting a reconstruction to determine the speed of the vehicle and to determine any other contributing factors.

The name of the driver and passenger is not being released until notifications of the families are completed.

This accident is the fifth fatal accident of 2009 the Aurora Police Traffic Section has investigated.