Quick, file a patent application before somebody steals your idea! :-) I think their should also be a breathalyzer built into new cars and if a drunk gets behind the wheel, the airbag should inflate multiple times until the drunk is rendered unconscious and incapable of driving! :-)
Matt
I suspect the give, but they are still pretty stout. Do you really think your nose is going to come away happy if it is what causes the steering wheel to collapse? I'd much rather hit an air bag than a steering wheel.
Matt
I should have also said that the drivers in the EU are as clueless as the American drivers that belts required for children are even better for adults - that is, assuming the EU also requires 5 point restraints for children.
Ted
Hmm - I guess then when your a child, it doesen't matter that you have "less give" to soften the deceleration, since all childrens car seats I've seen that are not for infants (ie: rear facing) use 5 point racing harnesses.
Yar har.
Certainly it hasn't been THAT long since you used one of these seats that you have forgotten already?!?! I thought you said your kid was 8!
The value of the 5 point over a shoulder belt is when you get struck with a lateral force and you just have a shoulder belt, even though your ass may stay in the seat, your upper body is thrown from side to side. Also, if your vehicle rolls and lands upside down, you don't fall out of the belt with a 5 point.
Ted
Ted, even you should know that in a rear facing seat it is the car belt holding the seat that absorbs the major impact, not the belt holding the infant. And I never had a 5 point harness in a seat, only three. Two belts over the shoulders and one between the legs, there were no side belts.
Matt
Well, I crossed over to the dark side. I replaced my wrecked minivan with a 2006 Hyundai Sonata. Seemed to be the best car for the money out there and the dealer is very convenient to where I work. I still have a Dodge GC, so I'm still allowed to post here, right? :-)
I looked at the Stratus, but I wanted a standard transmission and when I saw that one wasn't even available on the Stratus, I had to move to plan B.
Matt
They say supplemental in the manual to keep the morons from using the fact that airbags exist as an excuse to not wear a seat belt, and to try to reduce lawsuits from the estates of people killed in vehicle wrecks who wern't belted in.
Only in the newest vehicles can they be called a system with belts, but barely that - the difference is in the newest vehicles the airbag computer won't fire the bags if there's nobody in the seat (or a very light person in the seat)
I think most newer cars have explosive retractors now, and so if anything, the seatbelts have even less give than with the more traditional ratchet & pawl retractors.
Next time your in a sporting goods store look at what material they use to make vehicle towing straps out of - yep, it's seat belts. I use towing straps to hoist engines with my cherry picker, in fact.
Keep in mind that you couldn't possibly design the belts to have more give - because that would mean the amount of give would vary depending on how fat the driver was (ie: how much heavier) and a belt that would give the "right" amount for a 250 pound adult might let a 350 pound person tear right out, or a 115 pound woman not have enough give. The only way a seat belt design works is if you design it like they do - so that it supports hundreds to thousands of pounds of force without giving. That also gives a safety margin if the belt starts to get frayed which they can often do in older vehicles.
Ted
I see I didn't make it clear - the child seats I was talking about ARE FRONT FACING!
Those are old seats, then. Go into a store and look at a modern childs front facing car seat. They are 5 point belts.
Ted
Yes, I missed the "not" in the sentence above. Sorry about that.
Thankfully, I don't need to go to a store to look at chile seats anymore! :-)
Matt
Now I see what you mean (5-point belt).
What children get depends on their age. Our 8.5-yr-old son now sits on a booster seat and gets the adult belt.
When younger he had, yes, I think so, a 5-point system (or was it 4?) contained within his seat. The seat itself was secured by the adult seat belt. I think my newer car just missed the Isofix standardisation.
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
Come to think of it, I think our child seat only had three belts, too. Can't remember what the baby seat had.
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
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