If You Don't Wear a Seatbelt.......

If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

A few years ago I was leaving a track for lunch and taking one of the instructors with me. At lunch he relayed the following:

Now first let me say that I hadn't been driving with a seatbelt since the early 90s when my automotive choices started to come with airbags. I hated the belts since I had a car with the belt attached to an upper door track...so open the door and the top of the belt goes from over your left shoulder, along the opening door towards the corner of the widshield. On the third day I flung the door wide open, jumped in with key in right hand and food in left. Moving food and key around to close door and then reversing the process to start the car was harder than reaching waaay out with the right and fling the door closed. Since I wasn't use to the belt yet, it cycled rapidly towards my shoulder entangling my hands in the process. The food was a Dairy Queen cone that motored right into the side of my face.

Back to the instructor...He said consider you're approaching your favorate S curve...the one with clear sight lines like your in Kansas. The occasional tree or rock are way off line and there is no traffic. You brake hard approaching the turn-in point ready to cross into the empty oncoming left lane to clip the apex before heading back to the right.....or consider the same turn on a cold winter day and your just cruising.

At the point of turn in something happens. If it were winter it would be black ice that you can't see. On your spirited drive a tire is going down or something broke. Either way physics is now taking over the driving of your car. No problem! Plenty of room! Except when the sliding right rear tire hits the rock/curb/or whatever.

Now the good news is that your air bag did not deploy so you can see just fine. Maybe you saw that you were going to bounce off a curb, and you're ready for some hard straight line breaking into those weeds ahead.

Now here is where the instructor made his point, and why I've worn a belt ever since. The bad news is that when the right rear hit that rock your unbelted body was thrown towards the passenger side. Now you not only can't apply the brakes, but your hands have a reflexive death grip on the wheel which is now turning left instead of right. When you eventually hit that tree that was waaaay off line your airbag deploys. Unfortunately your face is bouncing off some hard surface on the other side of the car.

If the belt was on it would have locked your body in place instead of letting it fly. You would have maintained steering input, and at the right point the brakes could have come into play. Imagine the effect of no seatbelt in a multiple car collision on ice where an unbelted driver turns left into the oncoming traffic because his body has bounced over to the passanger side.

I now tell the occasional teenager who may think I'm cool because of my cars, "that seatbelts aren't for safety". They look a bit confused until I say they are for control and give an example. I go from cool to motoring guru. They naturally have to explain to their passengers to belt up because you can't have other people flying around and ruining your steering inputs.

Food for thought. Especially if you have a teenager.

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

I was under the impression that an airbag was not an alternative to a seatbelt but the two working together reduced injury in the event of a crash. At an advanced driving course I attended a while back the instructor went to great pains to get us to steer in a sort of shuffling motion so the your arms did not cross the front of your body. This was so that in an accident the airbag did not drive your arm into your face/head. He said they could work out the time of death by your watches impression on your forehead. Regards

 

[Ian Anderson]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

Buzz
Great story and hopefully it may help someone control their car and avoid a big one.

I can confirm that seatbelts saved my life. I raced Formula V in Zimbabwe in 1985 - 1986 and with the stupidity of youth thought that nothing would happen. That said I found I slid on the seat during hard cornering and ensured that my pit crew (Dad) pulled the 4 point belts as tight as he could before the formation lap. It was uncomfortable until the first hard corner when it did not seem tight enough! Anyway get to the first corner at about 95mph turn in, start a 4 wheel drift, (I did not brake for this corner) and the back suspension gave way. One barrel roll later I hit the gravel and decelerated (sideways now) from about 85mph to stop in somewher between 8 and 12 inches. Wven with the tight belt I managed to "unrivet" the side aluminum pannel by popping 22 rivets with my shoulder. I got out with bruises and a neck that clicks to this day.

At the next race meeting a friend (18 year old) did the same thing in a Lotus Cortina at the same corner.He was wearing an inertia real 3 point belt (As I say it was Zimbabwe and strange safety rules applied out there at that time) He went into the sandpit and came out of the seatbelt sideways - breaking his neck in the process.He survived in and Iron Lung for the next 5 years before passing on.

I go along with it - the seatbelt in my daily driver (Fiat Punto) has npw been changed twice under warranty as it is not holding correctly and if it wasn't for my past experience I probably would not worry.

Take advice wear the belts and make sure they are correctly adjusted and working.

Ian

 

[Bill Musarra]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

Back in 61 I was the proud owner of a 4door 57 chevy. While driving some friends around before school one morning, I decided to show them what it would do. Entering a hard left turn of a newly paved subdivision the right rear went through some dirt from a previous rain. The rear proceeded to come around, and I went immediately to the passenger seat. My reflex was to grab the wheel and try to get back into the drivers seat. In pulling the steering wheel, I proceeded to turn the wheel to the right which under "normal" cercumstances would have been the right thing to do. The car corrected and then started sliding the oposite way(all on a 2 lane street), throwing me into the drivers side door. Somehow I managed to find the pedals and slam the brakes on in time to slide right up to a brand new telephone pole. Needless to say a couple of us had to clean our pants before going back to school. My next car came with seat belts. Haven't not used them since.
Bill

 

[Rick Muck- Mark IV]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

I have always contended that the simplest intellegence test of a driver is merely observing if his/her belt is buckled. Anyone who has raced or hung around a track can verify that many people have "walked" away from incidents that could have been real ugly only because of the belt. And the control factor is really true, what seems tight on the grid seemed pretty loose on the track.

Rick /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

Mark IV & Ian

"what seems tight on the grid seemed pretty loose on the track"

This is especially true on our street cars. Peter Cunningham was the national champ in an NSX when I ended up at a Mid-Ohio club event while his Real Time Racing Team had the track. I kidded him about how if he could learn to handle the power in my twin turbo NSX his championship car would seem slow. He smiled and said, "Lets do it".

I learned a great deal in just those four laps, but for the purpooses of this thread I learned the most before we left the pits.

My car had standard inertia reals. I didn't catch why Peter was fussing with the seat so much, but then he turned to me and I got a look that must have been similar to a mother putting her child in the baby seat.....Yes I Had My Belt On....He told me to rum my electric seat all the way back. He then put his thumb between my chest and the belt and snaped his wrist to set the real. While he held the resistance against the frozen belt he told me to motor the seat forward. When I stopped against his thumb he said "more". And "more", and "more". He had trouble getting his thumb out when he was satisfied and I felt like I had a dent in my sternum.

So if any of you get to a track or autocross with your inertia belts, try running the seat back, yanking on the belt, and motoring that seat back up against the belt. As Mark IV implies its still going to feel loose out there.

Buzz

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

[ QUOTE ]
I was under the impression that an airbag was not an alternative to a seatbelt but the two working together reduced injury in the event of a crash. At an advanced driving course I attended a while back the instructor went to great pains to get us to steer in a sort of shuffling motion so the your arms did not cross the front of your body. This was so that in an accident the airbag did not drive your arm into your face/head. He said they could work out the time of death by your watches impression on your forehead. Regards

[/ QUOTE ]

I read an article a couple of years ago, about airbags in american vehicles being triggered in minor accidents, and the force of the airbag deploying injuring the occupants. It was alleged that the airbags were calibrated to deploy that fast because it was assumed that the driver (or passenger) would not be wearing a seatbelt, as it was not mandetory to wear a seat belt. Is this still the case in the majority of states in the USA? Without doing research (coz im lazy), surely it must be law to wear a seatbelt in most states?

 

[Scott]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

"So if any of you get to a track or autocross with your inertia belts, try running the seat back, yanking on the belt, and motoring that seat back up against the belt. As Mark IV implies its still going to feel loose out there."

The belts in some vehicles have a "child safety seat" mode, where the belt will retract but not reel out. Usually the mode is entered by pulling the belt all the way out, at which point it will make clicking noises while retracting. The way to get back out of the mode is to allow the belt to retract fully.

Scott

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

I've read where airbags don't deploy quite as fast as they use too, unless, of course, we're talking about a nagging wife /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

[ QUOTE ]
I've read where airbags don't deploy quite as fast as they use too, unless, of course, we're talking about a nagging wife /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Hahaha, nah, im just wondering if it law to wear a seatbelt in all US states? Because in Aust, its fines and demerit points if you dont. Its one government transportation inititive that has actually worked, and that im in favor of. (Oh I also agree with the drink and drive "bloody idiot" campaign we have here!)

 

[Ken Mason]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

John,

Is there really a 'bloody idiot' campaign in Oz? How does it work??

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

Usually what happens with traffic laws over here is the federal govt. says to the states "If you want us to keep giving you highway funding, you'll enact the <fill in the blank> regulation." Most states just go ahead and do it.

That's how we got the "right on red" law, and how the drinking age went from 18 to 21. I'm sure that's how seatbelt laws became fairly universal too.

At first, the cops couldn't pull you over just for not wearing a seatbelt (in some places anyway), but they could wright you up if they stopped you for something else and found that you weren't buckled up. Now, in most states, they can stop you just for a not wearing your belt.

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

Ken. Yes there is a campaign here that targets drink drivers. It says if you "Drink drive ,you're a bloody idiot". Sort of like the aids ads we had with long haired ferals hurling bowling balls at the innocent. Apart from that it really is a great place to live. Regards

 

[ChrisL]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

The advent of the auto-fitting seat belts and the air bag was, as I understand it (and the USA guys might want to confirm this) a direct result of the American constitution making it difficult to pass a law that forced people to wear seat belts. On the other hand, laws could be passed in the USA forcing manufacturers to fit safety devices such as the units mentioned. Please correct me if this is wrong.

By far, the best SINGLE safety device is a seat belt. The air bag is in fact a violent explosive device and can cause injury in its own right. Indeed, in Australia it is illegal to allow a small child to sit in the front seat of a car that has an airbag fitted. Decapitation by air bag has been recorded in Australia. Don't be fooled by those ultra-slow-motion adds showing those pillow like things that you fall into gently.

In various tests a device shown to save most lives is the self-tensioning seat belt. That’s one where the crash sensor is used to tighten your seat belt very very firmly against your body at the time of a collision. As with the air bag, a small explosive device is used to do this, but as opposed to an air bag it doesn’t go off in your face.

Incidentally, the air bags fitted in countries like Australia where seat belts are law, are actually configured differently to air bags in the USA, where the assumption is that the occupant may not be wearing a seat belt.

Now for a bit of silliness. If you don’t intend wearing a seat belt, make sure that you bolt your seat on the bonnet and sit on it there. That’s by far the safest place to be because when you hit something at speed, at least you won’t have a dashboard and windscreen to fly through before landing on the ground (if you’re lucky).

 

[roaldin]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

The collapsable steering column is a biggie also. A friend of mine was killed when he was impaled on the non-collapsing steering column of his car after breaking the wheel clean off. He was wearing a belt but the impact was such that the column was driven through him.
A very sad day.

Tim.

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

Chris:

You're somewhat correct about federal laws here in the US. Traffic laws are left to the states. The federal governemnt is responsible for product safey.

As I said in another post, the feds can't force states to pass laws like requiring seatbelts. Even so, there's always "the two towers" BLACKMAIL and EXTORTION. The feds got most (if not all) states to pass seatbelt laws within a realtively short period of time. They did it by threatening to withold money from those states that didn't.

Now if the feds would just get off the ball and make the states re-inact motorcycle helmet laws. Several years ago, we had "the revolution of stupidity" in which many states repealed their helmet laws under pressure from people who probably didn't have much in their heads worth protecting anyway.

 

[Gary Gibbs]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

Then maybe those with brains wear helmets voluntarily, and let Darwin sort out the rest /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

[ QUOTE ]
Chris:

As I said in another post, the feds can't force states to pass laws like requiring seatbelts. Even so, there's always "the two towers" BLACKMAIL and EXTORTION. The feds got most (if not all) states to pass seatbelt laws within a realtively short period of time. They did it by threatening to withold money from those states that didn't.



[/ QUOTE ]

Thats answered my questions! Thansk for the info Brian

 

[ChrisL]

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

[ QUOTE ]
The collapsable steering column is a biggie also.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry to hear about your friend Roaldin.

Weren't colapsable steering columns made mandatory on all cars from the late 60s on?

 

Re: If You Don\'t Wear a Seatbelt.......

2G:

Yeah, I tought there was a Darwinian aspect to the whole deal.