1. Seat belts are considered as one of the most important inventions in the field of automotive safety, it has saved over a million lives world wide.
2. The three-point seat belt was first introduced by Volvo in 1959 and seat belt pretensioners were first introduced by Mercedes Benz in 1981.
3. Seat belts have pretensioners that restrain the occupant from being thrown forward in case of an impact. A seat belt takes 20 milliseconds to restrain the occupant from the time of impact, while the airbags inflate in 40 milliseconds. The seat belt is designed to restrain the occupant completely before the airbags inflate.
4. A seat belt absorbs the kinetic energy of the occupants body in case of an impact. Pretensioners in seat belts have a pyrotechnical propellant charge that is electrically fired to push a small piston which restraints the inertia-reel of the seat belt.
5. Inflatable seat belts in which a small airbag pops out of the seat belt, would be used by Ford Motor Company in its Explorer SUV and a would eventually be made standard across all its range.
Seat belts, even though they might seem uneasy to use in the beginning would eventually grow on you and would make you feel safe during everyday drives.
Seat belts are truly life saving devices and we at Indian Autos Blog strongly urge you to belt up and drive!
Source – Staffs UK
