A seat belt is a harness designed to hold in place the occupant of a car or other vehicle against harmful movement that may result from a sudden stop or collision. As part of an overall occupant restraint system, seat belts are intended to reduce injuries by stopping the wearer from hitting hard interior elements of the vehicle or other passengers and by preventing the wearer from being thrown from the vehicle.
Seat belt is a feature of car safety and safety became an issue almost immediately after the invention of the automobile. All vehicles should be equipped with items to avoid any fatal injury to riders. One of the earliest recorded automobile fatalities was Mary Ward; she had the misfortune to fall under the wheels of an experimental steam car built by her cousins. This happened on 31st August 1869 , and may make her the earliest motor vehicle accident victim in Parson town Ireland
If the national seat belt usage rate increases to 90 percent from the current 68 percent, it would prevent an estimated 5,536 fatalities, 132,670 injuries and save the nation $26 billion annually. THAT'S TAX PAYERS MONEY.
We all pay for those who do not wear seat belts. Countless studies have proven with irrefutable evidence that drivers and passengers sustain more severe injuries when they are not restrainded. The higher health care and insurance costs that result from unbelted drivers and passengers involved in crashes get passed along to everyone. Just for medical care, lost productivity, and other injury related costs, society annually pays an estimated $26 billion for motor vehicle injuries and deaths experienced by unbelted vehicle occupants. The costs of hospital care for an unbelted driver are 50 percent higher than those for a driver who was wearing a safety belt. Society bears 85 percent of those costs, not the individuals involved.
Seat belt or safety belt was 1st developed for a person ascending or descending a ladder or pole, its inventor Edward J. Clag horn was granted U.S. Patent 312085 on February 28, 1885.
The seat belts were introduced initially for aircraft, it was in 1913, by Adolph Pegoud, who became the first man to fly a plane upside-down. However, seat belts did not become common on aircraft until the 1930s.
In the 1940s SAAB incorporated aircraft safety thinking into automobiles making the Saab 92 the first production car first with a safety cage.
Ford Motor Company inculcated the idea of seat belt as standard equipment in its cars through an invention by Edward J. Hock. In 1955 his idea was accepted by the naval authorities as well, and Hock was awarded for his invention.
In 1958, the United Nations established the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, an international standards body advancing auto safety. Many of the most life saving safety innovations, like seat belts and roll cage construction were brought to market under its auspices.
Nils Bohlin of Sweden invented the three point seat belt for Volvo, who introduced it in 1959 as standard equipment. Bohlin was granted U.S. Patent 3,043,625 for the device.
Most US automobiles were sold with front seat belts standard in the 1964 model year. Rear seat belts were made standard in 1968.
In 1966, the US established the United States Department of Transportation with automobile safety one of its purposes. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was created as an independent organization on April 1, 1967, but was reliant on the Department of Transportation for administration and funding. However, in 1975 the organization was made completely independent by the Independent Safety Board Act. According to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), seatbelts reduce the risk of death for a front seat car occupant by about 50 percent.
The NTSB and its European equivalent, EuroNCAP have each issued independent safety tests for all new automobiles, without reciprocity.
Despite technological advances, the death toll of car accidents remains high: while this number increases annually in line with rising population and increased travel, however the rate per capita and per vehicle miles traveled decreases.
The seat belts were initially lap seat belts, the designed advanced further with time and now Volvo SCC has criss-cross Belt. The seat belts are of following types.
The seat belts were initially lap seat belts, the designed advanced further with time and now Volvo SCC has criss cross Belt.
Lap: Adjustable strap that goes over the waist. Used frequently in older cars, now uncommon except in some rear middle seats. Passenger aircraft seats also use lap seat belts.
Two-point: A restraint system with two attachment points. A lap belt or (less commonly) diagonal belt (rare, common prior to the 1990s).
Automatic: Any seat belt that closes itself automatically. There is also a lap belt which should be fastened.
Sash: Adjustable strap that goes over the shoulder. Used mainly in the 1960s, but of limited benefit because it is very easy to slip out of in a collision.
Lap and Sash: Combination of the two above (two separate belts). Mainly used in the 1960s and 1970s. Generally superseded by three-point design.
Three-point: Similar to the lap and sash, but one single continuous length of webbing. Both three-point and lap-and-sash belts help spread out the energy of the moving body in a collision over the chest, pelvis, and shoulders. Until the 1980s three-point belts were commonly available only in the front seats of cars, the back seats having only lap belts. Evidence of the potential for lap belts to cause separation of the lumbar vertebrae and the sometimes associated paralysis, or "seat belt syndrome", has led to a revision of safety regulations in nearly all of the developed world requiring that all seats in a vehicle be equipped with three-point belts. By September 1, 2007 , all new cars sold in the US
Criss Cross Belt: Experimental safety belt presented in the Volvo SCC. It forms a cross-brace across the chest.
The usage of seat belt also has its own history, it's now mandatory almost world wide. Now it is compulsory for the manufacturer to equip both cars as well as buses with seat belt at all location i.e. Driver seat, front seat, rear seats & all passenger seats in a bus.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_safety
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat-Belt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_legislation
http://www.f150online.com/
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