Citation

Michelson I, Tourin B. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1961; 5: 243-248.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1961, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

The one serious design flaw in most seat belts on the American market is that they are only lap belts. In Sweden, as mentioned earlier, such belts are not used because they do not restrain the upper torso and head. They permit a body to jackknife, and the head can easily strike the dashboard or other parts of the car interior, particularly in small cars or cars with dashboards which protrude considerably into the passenger compartment. The Swedish harnesses are usually a combination of lap and diagonal chest straps, with two anchors on the floor, a third on the center door post. For example, the Swedish car Volvo comes equipped with such a harness. And the British Motor Corporation has just announced that all its new cars will come equipped with anchors for such harnesses. (One American-made harness whose chest strap was anchored in the floor behind the seat, was tested by CU; it barely passed the minimum acceptable standard used by CU in this series of tests.)

Since the American public is apparently not ready to accept harnesses at this time, it is obviously desirable to have a combination of lap belts, recessed and well-padded dashboards, and other energy-absorbing devices, plus an absence of sharp corners and protruding knobs. The improvement and standardization of these designs would go a long way toward compensating for the shortcomings of the present American-style seat belt.