I live in a place where 70% of people on the road don’t wear seat belts. It’s also no problem to go blazing by a cop, in a school zone in a small town with kids everywhere at 100mph, and the cop doesn’t even bat an eye.
Well, I’m drifting off the topic aren’t I…Let’s get to it, inflatable seat belts! They’re mainly being developed to help the elderly and children who might be more prone to shoulder and chest injury. They first showed up in the 2011 Ford Explorer which earned a top safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Some key points regarding these gizmos:
- Car’s sensors detect a crash -> seat belt inflates with compressed gas form a cylinder below the seat.
- Seat belt inflates to 5x the size of a regular safety belt in about 40 milliseconds.
- “The inflatable belt’s accordion-folded bag breaks through the belt fabric as it fills with air, expanding sideways across the occupant’s body,” Ford stated in a 2011 press release.
- It remains inflated for a few seconds and then lets the air out through.
Testing still remains to be done. They’re so new, there’s not a lot of real world data to compare. All data aside, if you were about to be in an accident and had the choice, which would you choose?
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