Million cars with seatbelt problems

Harry Duynhoven

Over a million cars in New Zealand have lap seatbelts, or no seatbelt in the rear centre seat, the Minister of Transport Safety said yesterday.

Harry Duynhoven said he would advise new car buyers to buy only those with three-point belts and preferably the latest technology belts.

Huntly coroner Bob McDermott has called for lap seatbelts to be banned, saying they cause shocking injuries and kill people and wants three-point seatbelts to be compulsory.

Mr Duynhoven said updating vehicles was a costly process and not practical for many, as the centre rear seat was often not occupied.

Many of those cars belong to grandparents, single people, married couples, or couples with two children, not three.

"Hatchbacks and station wagons have centre lap seatbelts because there is no alternative, without major engineering work and not within the value of vehicle."

Mr Duynhoven said he owned an old van with seven lap belts, but those belts were rarely occupied.

"It's too simplistic to say let's not just have lap belts.

"Even though [there] are on occasion horrific injuries, lap belt injuries could be lessened if people wore them properly tightened.

"In a crash, first the body moves forward until the slackness of the belt is taken up and then the body folds over the belt.

"If the belt is tight to begin with, that slows a good deal of the acceleration of the body down."

He said an unrestrained passenger was more likely to be killed in a car crash. The world's largest manufacturer of seatbelts said yesterday it was impossible to make older cars as safe as new ones even if lap seatbelts were replaced with three-point ones.

Autoliv's New Zealand spokesman Chris Sweetman said: "Internationally there are huge developments in occupant safety, but with older cars there are problems.

"The mounting parts behind the seat are designed for child seats, not designed to take the force of an adult."

Mr McDermott said the cost of replacing lap seatbelts with three-point seatbelts would deter the owners of older vehicles.

Autoliv said it could cost between $1500-$2000, depending on the engineering requirement of the vehicle.

However Mr Duynhoven said it could cost less - about $500 per belt to be changed.

Land Transport New Zealand has opposed the call for a ban on lap seatbelts, saying a belt was better than no seatbelt at all.

And National Road Policing manager Dave Cliff said that in the past police had discussed the issue of lap seatbelt injuries.

"In an ideal world, every car would have three-point belts, but the reality is that they don't.

"We don't like them [lap seatbelts] and we don't like what they do. However a restraint is better than no restraint."

New Zealand imports all its cars.

Holden and Ford have phased lap seatbelts out altogether, however the Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Previa - both popular family cars - still feature them.

"Safety is also about making good decisions about new car choices," Mr Cliff said.

- NZPA