Citation

Thomas C, Faverjon G, Henry C, Tarriere C, Got C, Patel MM. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1980; 24: 422-436.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Since 1970, a team of doctors and technicians, in collaboration with the police, has studied 3138 vehicles involved in accidents. The medical and technical data gathered has enabled exact determination of the circumstances and the configurations of collisions and identification of the causes of minor, serious and fatal injuries suffered by each of the occupants transported to the hospital. The material indexes dependent on the belt itself allowed pinpointing the cases in which the belt was worn effectively, thereby eliminating all risk of error in this fundamental point.

If the effectiveness of the 3-point belt is easy to measure in the experimental conditions to which the dummies are subjected, the prediction of the number of lives that the belt can spare on the road requires delicate handling. Real accidents are extremely varied and not all of them can be reproduced by the principal tests. The accident scenes must be observed not only to verify the results of these tests, but to prescribe new ones as well. The protection afforded by the safety belt is compared for drivers and front seat passengers.

Frontal impact, the effectiveness of the belt is evaluated:
- in terms of the force of the impacts characterized by the speed variation of the occupant (delta-V) on the one hand, and by the average deceleration of the vehicle (gamma-average), on the other hand;
- by body regions.

Finally, the role of the belt is analyzed in lateral impact and in rollover.