Car safety feature now a real belter

A three-point seatbelt can be fitted. Picture / Martin Sykes

Last weekend was a bumper time for the Grim Reaper as 14 people died on our roads in various accidents. Some may not have been wearing their seatbelts, which is tantamount to lunacy considering the number of appallingly bad drivers on New Zealand roads.

I was caught out twice on Saturday evening driving back from Omaha Beach. First there was a severe accident on the Matakana Rd heading back into Warkworth that would have entailed a 2-hour wait, according to the police officer directing traffic.

Luckily I know the area rather well, so after a bit of a wait, I decided to go the back roads through the Whangaripo Valley to get to Wellsford and then drive back into Warkworth. Just south of Wellsford there was another big accident, attended by ambulances and fire trucks. While waiting, yet again, to pass through, I started thinking not about bad drivers this time, but about the seatbelt and how of all the high-tech gizmos in new cars, it still remains the number one safety feature.

It came from quite humble beginnings and one urban myth has it a Formula One racing team back in the early 1950s made their drivers wear a lap belt to keep them in the car and thus avoid their being thrown out during a crash.

A more documented beginning has it that in the 1910s, Adolphe Pegoud, one of the first aircraft pilots to fly upside down, fitted a belt to keep him from falling out when inverted. He was also the first pilot to be credited with a parachute jump from an aeroplane. However, seatbelts in planes did not become common until the 1930s.

American doctors in the 1920s were seeing more drivers turning up to hospitals after motoring accidents, with severe facial and chest injuries from hitting the steering wheel, dashboard and windscreen. As a result, they started fitting restraining belts to their own cars. However, the rest of the public were unconvinced.

The forerunner of the modern web-style belt was first introduced by a naval flight instructor back in 1955 when he utilised pieces of parachute webbing as the harness strap and was given US$20 as a reward and a letter of commendation.

By now, Ford and a few car manufacturers were offering the safety belt (across your lap or across the chest) as optional extras in some of their models. Ford offered this option as a "lifeguard" system that was pilloried by its competitors but the idea went on to be a hit with the public.

Swedish carmaker Saab was the first to offer a two-point seatbelt as standard in their 1958 Saab GT 750. And after the 1958 New York Motor Show, safety belts became more commonplace.

A fellow countryman, Niles Bolin, invented the three-point seatbelt in 1959, the basic principles of which are still used today.

He introduced three anchor points in the Volvo so the new-style belt incorporated both a shoulder/chest restraint and a lap belt that had fixing points to the door pillar, car floor on one side and a locking clasp on the other.

By the end of the 1960s most cars around the world were sold standard with front and rear seatbelts.

Seats belts are now fitted with inertia reels that lock the belt when a strong force is applied to it. The device is fitted with a centrifugal clutch that engages when the reel spins quickly.

The history of buckling up

1920

* Doctors try fitting belts in their own cars.

1930

* Stunt pilots in aircraft fitted them to keep them in the aeroplane during inverted manoeuvres.

1950

* Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) makes racecar drivers fit belts into their car.
* Volvo offers chest belt and Ford and Chrysler offer lap belts as optional extras.
* Volvo design engineer Nils Bohlin patents the Basics of Proper Restraint Systems for Car Occupants (the three-point safety belt) that is a combination of a lap and chest belt.
* Volvo provides anchor points for belts in the rear of cars and three-point belts as standard in the front.

1960

* America issues standards for seatbelts.
* Standards Association of Australia issues standard for seatbelts.
* US carmakers provide seatbelt anchors in front as standard.
* Some US carmakers offer automatic locking retractors in front seatbelts.
* SCCA makes racers wear a shoulder harness as well as a lap belt.
* Volvo introduces three-point belt in rear as standard.
* Great Britain requires three-point seatbelts.
* Volvo provides ELR as standard in front.
* Mercedes-Benz adds three-point belt in rear as standard.
* Japan requires seatbelts, front and rear.

1970

* Sweden makes belts in rear law. Most European countries now make wearing seatbelts law.
* Australia and New Zealand make wearing seatbelts law.

1980

* Most countries around the world make it law to wear seatbelts in the rear of a car.
* Canada makes wearing a belt law followed by New York.
* Air bags begin to be introduced.

1990

* The EU makes seatbelts in mini buses and coaches a directive.

2000

* The compulsory wearing of seatbelts is still not in effect in all US states. Instead seatbelt laws are divided into two categories: primary and secondary. Primary seatbelt laws allow law enforcement officers to ticket a driver for not wearing a seatbelt, without any other traffic offence taking place. Secondary seatbelt laws state that law-enforcement officers may issue a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt only when there is another citable traffic infraction. Split is about half and half.

Types of seatbelt

* Two-point seatbelt: a belt and two attachment points; ie, a lap belt.
* Three-point seatbelt: has both a lap and a shoulder (chest) strap, anchored in three places - one shoulder and two hips.
* Five-point harnesses: found in child safety seats and racecars. The lap portion is connected to a belt between the legs and there are two shoulder belts, making a total of five points of attachment to the seat.
* Inertia reel: used just about everywhere now. They are self-adjusting and retract when not in use. A retractor reel lets out the strap or pulls it back as needed, and in the event of an accident locks, preventing any more strap from coming out.

Additional information, Governors Highway Safety Association