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Necessity of Car Seat Belts

Seat belts are also well known as safety belts. Basically it is a safety strap designed to protect the occupant of a vehicle against injurious movement that may result from a crash or a sudden halt. Apart from general occupant restraint system, seat belts are expected to reduce the risk of getting injured by stopping the occupant from striking hard interior elements of the vehicle or other occupants and by preventing the occupant from being thrown out of the vehicle. There are different types of seat-belts that are used in automobiles.

Lap Belts

Lap belts are adjustable strap that go over the waist. They are frequently used in older cars. These belts are now uncommon except in some rear middle seats. However passenger’s aircraft seats use lap seat belts.

Sash Belts

Sash belts are adjustable strap that goes over the shoulder. They were mainly used in the 60's models. However these have limited advantage because it is very easy to slip out of in a collision and are not safe.

Lap and Sash Seat Belts

Lap and sash belts are a combination of the above seat belts but come in two separate belts. They were mainly used in the 1960s and 1970s and are normally outdated by three-point design.

Three-point Seat Belts

A three-point seat belt is similar to the lap and sash types but carries one single continuous length of webbing. However, both three-point and lap-and-sash belts assist to spread out the energy of the moving body in a collision over the shoulders, chest, and pelvis.

Five point harnesses Seat Belts

Five point harnesses seat belts are safer but more restrictive seat belts. They are normally found in child safety seats and in racing cars. In this kind of seat belts, 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.

Six-point harnesses Seat Belts

Six-point harnesses seat belts became much popular after Dale Earnhardt died during a NASCAR race when he was wearing a five-point harness and was crashed to death. It was considered at first that his belt had broken then some teams ordered a six-point harness. Now the sixth point has two belts between the legs but still some feel to a weaker point than the other parts.

Inertia reel

Inertia reel seat belts are most commonly used and are effectively self-adjusting, which improves effectiveness. They also retract when not in use, reducing the chances of damage to the belts. A retractor reel lets out the strap or pulls it back as needed, and in the event of an accident the reel locks, preventing any more straps to come out and holding the passenger in the car.

Today many of the cars are coming out with Automatic Seat belts. Basically the cars have shoulder belts that automatically move forward to protect the occupant when the vehicle is started. These automatic seat-belts basically come in two types:

Manual lap belt with automatic shoulder belt

Some cars are enhanced with shoulder belts that automatically strap around the person to secure the passenger when the vehicle is started. This shoulder belt is also attached with a separate lap belt that has to be fastened manually. Now in many countries, with the airbags becoming as a compulsory safety feature, automatic seat belts are loosing its significance.

Automatic Shoulder and Lap Belts

Automatic Shoulder and Lap Belts were mostly used in older General Motors automobiles. The only difference compared to Manual lap belt with automatic shoulder belt is that here even the lap belt also straps automatically. These seat belts have normal release buttons that are supposed to be used only in an emergency.

Always ensure to wear seat belts to have a safe drive. It might really take time or boring for one to wear. As safety plays a very vital role in any kind of driving.