Rear seatbelt problem

"Sharp Dressed Man" wrote in news:gltl4d$6d3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.motzarella.org:

Safety regulations. Thank your friendly NHTSA. Not much you can do.

Can you not squish yourself into the seatback to release the belt from its ratchet, then immediately use your thumb to pull the belt back out again?

Did you extend the belt all the way out when fastening it? That's a "feature" for use with car seats where there should be no play or movement. Try not pulling it out all the way when fastening it and it should work as normal.

As TeGGer says, that's the design. Some auto shops carry clips designed to prevent the boa constrictor effect of seatbelts. They are fastened on to prevent the belts from taking up slack... but with the clips on the belts won't retract either.

Mike

Thus spake "Michael Pardee" :

My m-i-l uses a pair of clothes pins. And it scares the crap out of me because she leaves about 6 inches of slack in the belt. That's a lot of room for some major deccelleration trauma to both the thorax and the c-spine (basal skull fracture comes to mind).

I agree - that is a lot of free-fall distance before the sudden stop. An inch or two is likely to increase the bruising, but six inches (a three inch free-fall) is like a three foot fall in a 10G collision, and 10 G's is not even a big one. There is a reason modern belts are self adjusting.

At work we do a fair amount of tower work and safety is a constant issue. Our fall-arrest harnesses have to be clipped to structure above us, and even with the shock absorbing bungee (it rips out at a constant 800 lb pull) the management of free-fall - and swing - is a major consideration. In class we were taught that a six inch drop with the old-school body belts (which are called "positioning belts" now) can be fatal.

Mike

I checked my 04, and it works as Seth describes. If I pull it all the way out it 'ratchets' as it returns but must go all the way back in before it releases. If I don't pull it out all the way it moves freely as I move around.

Thus spake "Michael Pardee" :

When I race, I wear a HANS unit. My wife made me buy it. Yeah, it's expensive (off the shelf units were over $900). Scott Brayton made me a believer.

When I was climbing regularly, I took a fall of over 100 feet. What "saved" me from more severe injuries was that, on the way down, I pulled every piece of pro I had placed. It also helped that my second had an arrester and let about 15 feet run out. Most of the nuts I had place had rippers in them. But I hurt like hell for days. Which was later explained by x-rays that showed three broken ribs.

Yup, that does it-- just pulling the belt out far enough to latch it and it works fine. Thanks.

One more thing, my rear seat left and center female belt connectors are mounted next to each other -- but each will only accept its correct and corresponding male connector.

Thus spake "Sharp Dressed Man" :

Correct. One is marked CENTER, but it's damned hard to read, even in daylight.

See the owner's manual for your shiny new $30,000 toy--that's a feature, too. Has been for many, many years now. And in fact--now, don't tell anyone--they're LABELED for which is which.

Labeled? Oh sure, that's really helpful------ if it's broad daylight, you have fighter pilot eyesight, your butt doesn't overhang both connectors and your belly doesn't block your line of sight.

They're also positioned very obviously.

Plus, the owner of the car knows what's going on--because he's read the OWNER'S manual, you see. He's there to help.

Thus spake "Elmo P. Shagnasty" :

And, failing all that:

"Hmm, doesn't work, let's try the other one."

When I'm reaching across the dogs to buckle them in (with a cover over the seat), sometimes it's a little hard to figure which one is right. But it only takes about 100 milliseconds to figure out which one is wrong.

The problem with the owner's manual is it's many hundreds of pages long-- a quarter of it is boilerplate "safety" warning warnings and disclaimers inserted by lawyers to cover their ass against a lawsuit when some butthead decides to drive his car off a pier and sues them because the OM didn't say not to operate the car in the ocean. Fully a third of my OM concerns other models or covers features not in my model. Thus, the useful info you need to know is buried four layers deep where you'd never find it. My car even came with a quick start guide-- itself dozens and dozens of pages long.