Ask Sam: Guide to Seat Belts

Sam Freij is the Kingdom Maintenance Director at Alissa Holdings. He has over 23 years of automotive experience under his belt. He will be sharing his thoughts with us on numerous automotive topics every week. He looks forward to answering your questions. 

Dear Yalla Motorists,

This week I would like to place serious emphasis on SAFETY, things we take for granted such as our safety when operating our vehicle plus the safety of our passengers, children family and friends.

Why use the seat belt/ baby seat (with a twist of physics):

A seat belt functions to reduce the likelihood of death or serious injury in a traffic collision by reducing the force of secondary impact with interior strike hazards, by keeping occupants positioned correctly for maximum effectiveness of the airbag (if equipped) and by preventing occupants being ejected from the vehicle in a crash.

Not too long ago...

Seat belts were invented by Edward Claghorn of New York, was granted the first patent on February 1885 for a safety belt. Claghorn was granted United States Patent for a Safety-Belt for tourists, painters, firemen, etc. who are being raised or lowered, described in the patent as "designed to be applied to the person, and provided with hooks and other attachments for securing the person to a fixed object."

The evolution of seat belts within the Automotive world:

The car manufacturers Nash (in 1949) and Ford (in 1955) offered seat belts as options, while Swedish Saab first introduced seat belts as standard in 1958. After the Saab GT 750 was introduced at the New York Motor Show in 1958 with safety belts fitted as standard.

Glenn Sheren of Mason, Michigan submitted a patent application on March 31, 1955 for an automotive seat belt and was awarded US Patent in 1958.

However, the first modern three point seat belt (the so-called CIR-Griswold restraint) used in most consumer vehicles today was patented in 1955 by the Americans Roger W. Griswold and developed to its modern form by Swedish inventor Nils Bohlin for Swedish manufacturer Volvo who introduced it in 1959 as standard equipment. In addition to designing an effective three-point belt, Bohlin demonstrated its effectiveness in a study of 28,000 accidents in Sweden. Unbelted occupants sustained fatal injuries throughout the whole speed scale, whereas none of the belted occupants were fatally injured at accident speeds below 60 mph. No belted occupant was fatally injured if the passenger compartment remained intact.Bohlin was granted US Patent for the device.

The world's first seat belt law was put in place in 1970, in the state of Victoria, Australia making the wearing of a seat belt compulsory for drivers and front-seat passengers.

Types of seat belts:

1. Lap

A lap belt is a strap that goes over the waist. This was the most commonly installed type of belt prior to legislation requiring 3-point belts, and is primarily found in older cars.

2. Sash

A "sash" or shoulder harness is a strap that goes diagonally over the vehicle occupant's outboard shoulder and is buckled inboard of his or her lap. The shoulder harness may attach to the lap belt tongue, or it may have a tongue and buckle completely separate from those of the lap belt

3. Three-point

A 3-point belt is a Y-shaped arrangement, similar to the separate lap and sash belts, but unitized. Like the separate lap-and-sash belt, in a collision the 3-point belt spreads out the energy of the moving body over the chest, pelvis, and shoulders.

4. Belt-in-Seat (BIS)

The BIS is a three-point harness with the shoulder belt attached to the seat itself, rather than to the vehicle structure.The first car using this system was the Range Rover Classic. Fitment was standard on the front seats from 1970. Some cars like the Renault Vel Satis use this system for the front seats. A General Motors assessment concluded seat-mounted 3-point belts offer better protection especially to smaller vehicle occupants.

5. Seven-point

Aerobatic Aircrafts frequently use a combination harness consisting of a five-point harness with a redundant lap-belt attached to a different part of the airframe. While providing redundancy for negative-G maneuvers (which lift the pilot out of the seat), they also require the pilot to un-latch two harnesses if it is necessary to parachute from a failed aircraft.

Child Seats & Safety:

As with adult drivers and passengers, the advent of seat belts was accompanied by calls for their use by child occupants, including legislation requiring such use. Generally children using adult seat belts suffer significantly lower injury risk when compared to non-buckled children.

The UK extended compulsory seatbelt wearing to child passengers under the age of 14 in 1989. It was observed that this measure was accompanied by a 10% increase in fatalities and a 12% increase in injuries among the target population. In crashes, small children who wear adult seatbelts can suffer "seat-belt syndrome" injuries including severed intestines, ruptured diaphragms and spinal damage. There is also research suggesting that children in inappropriate restraints are at significantly increased risk of head injury,

One of the authors of this research has been quoted as claiming that "The early graduation of kids into adult lap and shoulder belts is a leading cause of child-occupant injuries and deaths. As a result of such findings, many jurisdictions now advocate or require child passengers to use specially designed child restraints. Such systems include separate child-sized seats with their own restraints and booster cushions for children using adult restraints. In some jurisdictions children below a certain size are forbidden to travel in front car seats.

Most sensitive to speak about and dear to my heart are children. During my travel throughout the Middle East I have noticed parents driving with their children UNFASTENED!

This is extremely dangerous. Children don’t know what is right and wrong, what is safe and unsafe. We adults have a moral and an ethical duty/obligation toward their protection and safety.

I urge all parents and adults to protect those little loved ones, And use the proper seat belt or baby seat (based on age and weight). Check out the chart below for guidance.

As always, send in your questions to [email protected].

Drive Safe!

Sam