The car's seat belts are. They are designed to prevent dangerous movement of a person, which can occur in a collision or sudden braking. The use of seat belts reduces the likelihood and severity of injuries from impacts with hard parts of the body, glass, with other passengers (so-called secondary impacts). Fastened seat belts ensure the effective operation of the airbags.

Types of seat belts

According to the number of attachment points, the following types of seat belts are distinguished: two-point, three-point, four-, five- and six-point.

Nowadays, it can be found as a middle seat belt in the back seat of some older cars, as well as in passenger seats on airplanes. The reversible seat belt is a lap belt that runs around the waist and is attached to both sides of the seat.

They are the main type of seat belt and are installed on all modern cars. The 3-point diagonal lap belt has a V-shaped arrangement that distributes the energy of the moving body evenly to the chest, pelvis and shoulders. The first serial three-point seat belts were offered by Volvo in 1959, the developer is Niels Bohlin.

Installed on sports cars. They have four attachment points to the car seat. For production cars, they are a promising design; additional upper belt mounts are required to install the belt, which are not provided for by the design of the car.

Used on sports cars, as well as to secure children in child car seats. Includes two waist straps, two shoulder straps and one strap between the legs. Six-point harness have two straps between the legs, due to which a more secure fixation of the pilot of a racing car is provided.

A promising design is inflatable seat belts, which are filled with gas during an accident. They increase the area of ​​contact with the passenger and, accordingly, reduce the load on the person. the inflatable section can be only a shoulder section, as well as a shoulder and waist section. Tests show that this seat belt design provides additional side impact protection.

As a measure against the non-use of seat belts since 1981, automatic seat belts. These seat belts automatically secure the passenger when the door is closed (engine start) and release when the door is opened (engine stop). As a rule, the movement of the shoulder belt, which moves along the edges of the door frame, is automated. The waist belt is fastened by hand. Due to the complexity of the design, the inconvenience of getting into a car, automatic seat belts are currently practically not used.

Three-point seat belt device

The three-point seat belt includes a webbing, a buckle and a retractor.

The seat belt webbing is made of durable material. The strap is attached to the body with the help of special devices at three points: on the rack, on the threshold and on a special rod with a lock. To adapt the belt to the height of a particular person, many designs provide for the adjustment of the upper attachment point in height.

The lock provides locking of a seat belt and is established near a car seat . To connect with the lock on the strap, a movable metal tongue is made. To remind you of the need to use a seat belt, the design of the lock provides a switch that is included in the circuit of the audiovisual signaling system. Warning occurs with a warning light on the dashboard and an audible signal. The algorithm of operation of this system has differences for different automakers.

The retractor provides forced unwinding and automatic rewinding of the seat belt. It is attached to the car body pillar. The reel is equipped with an inertial locking mechanism that stops the movement of the belt in the reel in the event of a crash. There are two ways to block - as a result of the movement (inertia) of the vehicle and as a result of the movement of the seat belt itself. The belt can only be pulled out of the reel drum slowly without acceleration.

Modern cars are equipped with seat belts

One of the main criteria for choosing children's products is safety. It is important to remember this on the road, on a walk with a stroller, and even seating the child in a high chair. It is necessary to carefully approach the choice of means of protecting the child. Why should you pay attention to the five-point seat belt? If only because even in sports cars this driver protection is installed. After all, such belts allow you to evenly distribute the load during tension and securely fix the human body in the chair.

Purpose

The five-point seat belt is a means of passive protection against the dangerous movement of a child while traveling by car, while walking in a stroller or while feeding on a special chair. Such seat belts are suitable for children up to 3-4 years old (car seats of groups 0, 0+ and 1+ are used), then they become small, and the child car seat is fixed with ordinary car belts.

Device

The five-point harness consists of two shoulder straps, two leg straps and one strap that goes between the legs. That's where its name comes from. The 5-point harness buckle always locks securely as kids love to play with it and try to open it. On the shoulder straps, additional softening pads are most often worn to protect the neck of a small passenger from injury and chafing.

In addition, often the car seat belt buckle is equipped with soft upholstery, which will soften the pressure of the buckle on the child’s stomach or groin. All soft pads can also be purchased separately if they were not included in the package of the children's product. The five-point seat belt for a highchair and stroller is often thinner and less secure than for a car seat.

Operating principle

The load of such belts in the event of a collision is distributed to the strongest parts of the child's body - the shoulders, bones of the hips and pelvis. As you know, in the event of a collision, the human body is subject to inertia. In security cases, it is difficult to guarantee reliable protection. That is why the five-point seat belts are used for children, which completely fix the child's body and do not allow him to slip out of the child car seat. Fixation of strong parts of the body helps to avoid serious injuries and the consequences of an accident or sudden braking. It is important to remember that after an accident, it is undesirable to use a car seat, it must be replaced with a new one.

Stroller seat belts help prevent an active baby from falling out while walking. Fixing the child in the high chair will enable the person who feeds him to move away or be distracted for a while, without fear that the baby will slip out of the high structure.

Fastening

In a child car seat, fastening five-point belts is quite simple - the shoulder belts pass through special holes in the chair and are fastened from the back of the back with a special metal or plastic hook. The leg straps also pass through the holes in the seat and are held in hooks on the underside of the car seat. The tension strap that runs between the child's legs runs under the seat and is attached to one hook along with the shoulder straps. Each belt must be adjusted separately for the child, and also do not forget about his clothes - in the autumn-winter period, it may be necessary to loosen the belts so that the child is comfortable.

The seat belts for the stroller and high chair can also be adjusted to fit the child, lengthening or shortening them, or changing them to thicker, softer or more secure locks. Changing the belt is the same as in the car.

Car seat: fastening and installation

In addition to properly adjusted seat belts, the child car seat must be securely attached to the vehicle. It can be done in several ways:

• regular three-point seat belts of the car;
• Isofix mount;
• installation of an additional base for the car seat, which in turn is fixed regular belts or Isofix mount.

Fastening with regular seat belts is universal way car seat fixation. Despite the convenience, this method also has its drawbacks - this procedure is somewhat complicated and inconvenient, in addition, there is a possibility of improper or insufficiently strong fixation of the chair. Sometimes in situations involving a car seat of groups 0 and 0+, regular belts may not be enough for its full girth. In this case, it is necessary to replace the standard belts in the car dealership with longer ones, without increasing the length of the belt with your own hands. Fixing the car seat and the child with regular seat belts is necessary for children over 3 years old (from 18 kg), since not all car seats of older groups have a five-point seat belt.

Isofix mount

This method was developed and standardized in Europe in the 90s and has since gained popularity due to its simplicity and reliability. The Isofix car seat has the main advantage - in addition to the five-point seat belts, it is securely fixed on the car seat.

The whole system is divided into two parts: automobile and armchair. The vehicle uses two metal brackets, which are installed at a standard distance of 280 mm from each other in the back of the rear seat at the passenger seating areas. Most often, these places are marked with the inscription Isofix and sometimes with a picture of a child in a car seat. The car seat also has two rigid guides with a fixation mechanism in brackets.

This fastening is quite simple and allows you to securely install the seat in the car without fear of error. After all, two characteristic clicks will make it clear that the car seat mount is securely fixed. Recently, a third attachment point has been used to fix the upper part and avoid a dangerous forward lean. It is also called the "anchor" belt. It attaches from the top of the car seat back to a brace that can be located on the car's rear shelf, on the trunk floor, or in any other rear area. The Isofix car seat is suitable for any car on which the system's attachment points are installed.

Alternative to five-point harnesses

In addition to five-point seat belts, there are restraint bumper tables or buffer tables. Such a table is a soft cushion with plastic inserts, which is fastened with a standard seat belt across the child's body. This type protection is looser and gives the child more freedom to act. It is believed that such protection is able to keep the child in the seat during an accident and not cause him injury due to its softness and elasticity. However, according to recent crash tests, it was revealed that such tables are not able to reliably hold the child when the car is overturned, and also do not have the ability to protect the upper body during a sharp inertial forward movement.

Advantages of five-point seat belts

Since any parent considers it necessary to take care of their child, it is important to understand that the safety of the baby must be trusted with proven and reliable means. A five-point seat belt has a number of advantages over belts with fewer anchorage points:

• correct distribution of the load on the strong parts of the child's body;
• mitigation of the force of impact during an accident due to reliable fixation in the car seat;
• easy adjustment of the belts to the size of the child;
• soft and secure holding of an active baby in the stroller and highchair;
• the possibility of easy replacement of belts in any children's product.

The webbing of the seat belt, woven from polyester fibers, can withstand more than three tons. Approximately the average elephant weighs, two golf-class cars and ... a fastened 80-kilogram driver of a passenger car that collides with a fixed obstacle at a speed of 80 km / h. In order not to injure the body - not to break the chest and reduce the amount of deceleration - the tape begins to stretch with excessive force, absorbing the load. That is why the belts must be changed after an accident.

Back in 1903, the French scientist and inventor Gustav Desi Lebe proposed the design of a five-point seat belt, consisting of a waist and two diagonal straps intersecting on the chest. But the idea did not meet with support - the drivers and passengers did not want to be put on a leash, and the process of fastening itself brought a lot of inconvenience and took a lot of time. Belts were remembered only half a century later, when the speed began to grow, and with it the number of deaths in road accidents. Only in the 50s of the last century, this holding device began to be installed on cars, first as additional equipment, and then as standard.

In Russia Rules traffic require the use of seat belts for the driver and all passengers, including those in the back seat. Excessive force on the belt during an impact can injure a fragile child's body. Therefore, the rules oblige small passengers to be transported only in special chairs. Older children are allowed to use child seats or boosters, which allow the child to be seated higher so that the upper branch of the belt passes over the shoulder and not the neck (the larynx, important vessels and cervical vertebrae are vulnerable here), and does not cause injury in an accident. A high-seated child is also protected by a side curtain airbag.

Several dozen options for fastening and attaching straps were invented, although many of them did not take root for various reasons. Sometimes the design turned out to be too tricky or it was inconvenient to use the belts, and some did not perform their functions at all. So, for example, the waist belts securely fix the lower body in the chair upon impact, but the spine experiences increased bending loads, and the head meets the instrument panel, steering wheel and other interior elements. Diagonal belts, popular on American models of the 60s, on the contrary, hold the body above the waist, but do not prevent a person from “diving” under the strap during an accident, with all the ensuing consequences.

Therefore, the search for more convenient and successful designs continued. In the late 1950s, the Swedish engineer Niels Ivar Bolin, who moved from the aviation division of SAAB, where he worked on restraint systems for ejection installations, to Volvo, proposed three-point belts. They consisted of lap and diagonal straps and a single buckle next to the driver's thigh. All three points of attachment to the elements of the car were mounted statically (hence the name - a static belt). After rigorous testing, the novelty debuted in 1959 on the Volvo PV 544 and P 120 Amazon models and quickly proved its superiority over other schemes. Within a couple of years, they began to equip all cars of the Swedish company, and other manufacturers could purchase a free license to manufacture and install such restraint systems on their cars.
But, with all the advantages, these three-point belts had one significant drawback. They worked as efficiently as possible only when properly adjusted. And since this type of belt can still be found on older models, remember a simple test method: the gap between the chest and the tape should be no more than two fingers. Many, out of ignorance or because of discomfort (after all, it’s more correct when the belt is tightened rather tightly) dissolve the “nooses”. In this case, during a collision, the body manages to develop a serious acceleration before, abruptly resting, hangs on the saving straps. As a result, the body experiences increased stress, contacts with interior details are not excluded. In general, the consequences of improper adjustment can be quite gloomy.

Inertial belts

In the 70s, the design of the three-point belt was improved - inertial ones began to be installed instead of static ones. The main difference: instead of adjusting buckles, the required length of the tape is automatically measured by an inertial coil. All that is required of the buckler is to pull out the belt and snap the lock, and the excess will wind itself back onto the bobbin. What if there's an accident? The human body moves forward upon impact, the tape, stretching, begins to unwind the coil, but the pendulum or ball mechanism installed in the coil, under the action of centrifugal forces, will instantly fix it and prevent the tape from unwinding further. You have probably experienced this effect more than once, sharply pulling the strap.

Three-point V-shaped (two straps draw this letter when fastening) the belt reduces the risk of serious injuries in accidents by more than half. Therefore, in most civilized countries there are strict requirements that all places in the car be equipped with such restraint systems. The location of the main elements of seat belts in the car: 1 – inertial coils; 2 - locks; 3 – pretensioners with squibs; 4 – height-adjustable upper attachment points

But the blocking works not only when the strap is pulled sharply, the coil is also fixed at critical rolls and when the car accelerates 0.5-0.7g in any of the directions. Thus, riders are fixed in their places not only upon impact, but also in cases where the car slows down intensively or passes a turn with large lateral accelerations. The latch also works during rolls and in the initial stages of capsizing.
Inertial belts have made a small revolution, greatly correcting the statistics. Due to the fact that it turned out to be much more convenient to use them - there is no need to regulate them - the number of drivers and passengers strapped in has almost doubled. And along with these indicators, the number of seriously injured as a result of road accidents has decreased significantly. But inertial belts, along with advantages, also have disadvantages. They almost do not constrain those sitting, they act after the fact and with some delay - in the event of an accident, such “freedom” leads to tangible overloads and serious consequences. Judge for yourself, a person sitting in a chair can change his position, lean forward or to the side. In addition, winter clothes with thick linings increase the very “gap” between the body and the strap. And yes, people are different. An obese person is in a more losing situation, since the fat layer contributes to a small, but loss of time. Engineers again had to rack their brains to correct this defect. The fruit of the search was a new device that quickly eliminates belt slack upon impact, and thereby reducing dangerous accelerations in a collision.

Pyrotechnics

There are several options for pretensioners different in concept and design, but the principle of operation is the same for all. For example, the drive tightens the coil, which, in turn, tightens the seat belt, and sometimes tightens the lock, acting simultaneously on both branches of the belt. On average, the straps are "shortened" by 100-150 mm - this is enough to eliminate the dangerous gap between the belt and the chest. What drives the mechanism? After all, the count goes to hundredths of a second.

A microexplosion will help, and it will arrange a squib, which is activated using an electric detonator. The sensors of the control system recognize the vector and force of the impact, transmit a signal to the control unit and "set fire" to the charge. The energy of expanding gases, released as a result of a chemical reaction, just pushes the pretensioner drive.

Limiters

When extinguishing acceleration, it is important not to allow the grip of the belt to become “dead”. The maximum force with which the belt must press on the chest, abdomen and pelvis must not exceed 1500 N (approximately 150 kg), otherwise serious injuries cannot be avoided. Therefore, when approaching the peak load, the force limiter is activated. It is arranged extremely simply: the reel with the tape is planted on a torsion bar - a steel rod, which, with a certain force on the belt, begins to twist and unravel the belt. The strap lengthens accordingly, the load on the human chest is reduced, while the peak deceleration value becomes somewhat lower. The impact of the belt-torsion system is extinguished somewhat softer than when the tape is fixed tightly. The chances of survival increase.

At very strong blows(for example, at high oncoming speeds during frontal collisions), the force limiter is able to “bleed” the belt so much that the driver and passenger, even through deployed airbags, can “get” to the steering wheel and front panel. Remember the sad example of the women who died in the Citroen C3 during a loud accident on Leninsky. As they say, everything has a limit - both the human body and the rescue systems.
However, engineers, painstakingly adjusting safety elements and systems (the operation of belts, pretensioners, force limiters, the speed and force of airbag deployment, the programmable deformation zone of the body), conduct thousands of tests, break hundreds and hundreds of cars in search of compromises that can reduce the consequences accidents in the widest possible range of speeds and situations. So buckling up is vital. Airbags are only effective if you are wearing your seatbelt.

Advance insurance

A worthy replacement is growing at squibs. In modern proactive preventive safety systems, the belts are tightened by electric drives. They do not "damp gunpowder", and they work, in the truest sense of the word, without noise and dust. They act a little slower, but electronics give them the necessary temporary head start. For example, acceleration sensors or radars that constantly scan the environment around the car detect a dangerous situation, pre-tighten the belt and firmly press the driver and passengers into the seats. If everything worked out, then the belts will loosen their grip, otherwise, the rest of the passive safety equipment will come into play.

One of the advantages of electric motors over squibs is that they are reusable. Such pretensioners on many cars (Audi, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz) can tighten the belts immediately after you have fastened your seat belts, they reduce the gap between the tape and the body in advance, take out slack and dent the lining of warm clothes. Electric pretensioners are usually used in combination with pyropretensioners, which one to use at the right time is already decided by the electronics.

In general, what do you need to buckle up for?

Let's figure it out. Statistics show that the use of seat belts reduces the risk of death and serious injury in a frontal collision by 2-2.5 times, in a side collision by 1.8 times, and in a rollover by as much as 5 times!
During and after the impact, the body must be fixed in place. And it doesn't matter where you sit - in front or behind, in a passenger car or on a bus. Why get fixed? To prevent arbitrary movement of riders around the cabin. “Flying” from the whole swing of the head into the glass, breaking arms and legs on interior elements, stumbling along the way with an eye on the gear lever or windshield wiper, is an unhappy prospect. If the head gets between the headrest and the side pillar, it’s also not good. It is absolutely impossible to predict where the car will turn the next moment after the first impact - dislocation of the cervical vertebrae is likely even at the most harmless speeds.

What will follow next? Repeated strikes or a series of coups? Do you want to fly out of a broken side window during a rollover (the situation in the video above, alas, is not uncommon) and be crushed by your own car? Don't buckle up! But there are hundreds of such accidents every day! By the way, unofficial statistics confirm that unfastened passengers in the front seat often break their foreheads and break their noses on the front panel when the driver hits the brake pedal sharply.
Being fixed and tightly pressed by the belt to the "enveloping" chair, which has lateral support, the body is in a thrifty vice. A driver with a sharp maneuver or after an impact with a well-tightened belt has the ability to drive a car and fight the situation to the last, nothing will knock him out of his workplace. No matter how it twists, beats, or flips the car on or off the road, the seat and belt keep the body in the most protected position away from the roof, pillars, front panel. Racing drivers have repeatedly experienced all the delights of accidents and upheavals in their own skins. Remember how their landing is organized - they sit literally "driven" into bucket chairs, tightly "tied hand and foot" with multi-point belts.

Imagine the simplest frontal impact (by the way, the most common one). What's going on in this case? The car slows down, and the rider, by inertia, seeks to continue moving forward. Ideally, even before the impact, the belt with a good effort presses the body of the rider to the chair and already from this initial position begins to “catch” him. Why is it important?
The fact is that during a frontal impact, some time passes from the moment the obstacle is touched to the complete stop of the car body. The impact energy and speed are damped by the programmable deformation zone, which is embedded in the design of the front part of the vehicle's power structure. Crushing for some time, the power elements soften the blow, thereby reducing the acceleration and load acting on the car.

Accordingly, the fastened person, slowing down along with the car body, stops more smoothly. At the same time, the wide straps of the belt take on the loads of the body - the weight is distributed over a large surface area, because the chest, collarbone, pelvis and, in part, the hips are in contact with the belt. And the belt itself is able to somewhat mitigate the impact energy within the margin of space: the nylon tape, when exposed to the body, stretches a little, the coil (if it is an inertial belt) “releases” part of the tape. If the blow is very strong, in order not to break the chest and protect the body from excessive accelerations, the force limiter will work, which, succumbing to the onslaught of the body, “bleeds” the strap even more.

50 ms after impact. Retractable belts (the straps are poisoned by the force limiter torsion bar) and the gas support of the pillows take on the weight of the riders. Body deformation zone in the active stage of impact energy absorption

If a person is not fastened, he, hitting the elements of the interior, experiences much greater overloads than a fastened one. After all, while the car was deformed and extinguished the impact speed, the person freely flew forward. So the body meets the interior parts rigidly when the car is already stationary. “Flying” your head into the windshield is deadly. Why? Answer below.

Cobwebs of cracks on the windshield of the VAZ "ten" - the result of the flight of three unfastened mannequins. The speed of collision with a deformable obstacle during the crash test is 50 km/h. “The right“ passenger ”plowed a furrow in two-thirds of the glass, cutting his face on fragments, as if on a grater. The “child”, due to its small mass, did not leave such impressive traces (the place of contact of the child’s head with the glass is circled). The tightly glued glass of the "tens" swelled, but withstood the terrible blows of the heads of unfastened mannequins - with an overload of up to 208g! The brain deceleration of the driver dummy at a critical three-millisecond interval exceeded the dangerous threshold of 88g and reached 94g. Moreover, since the windshield in modern cars is installed sloping, a person inevitably throws his head back when he hits it, which was recorded by the sensors in the cervical vertebrae: they were broken back with a moment of 88 N • m. With a safe threshold of 57 N•m. During the test, when the driver dummy was strapped in, its sensors recorded the maximum brain overload of 65.1g. The bending moment acting on the neck was 33 N•m. The chances of getting serious injuries to the head and cervical vertebrae in the unfastened “driver” and “passenger” of the “tens” at a speed of 50 km / h are three times higher than those fastened. All the details in the test conducted by the newspaper Autoreview

It is useless to rely on unfastened pillows, the body, as a rule, flies over them upon impact. Airbags are effective only in a limited "cockpit", within which riders are held by a belt. Moreover, often a pillow that shoots towards an unfixed body can even do harm. So banal, at first glance, the strap is a universal tool that both fixes the body and dampens the impact energy.

Caution, used!!!

A short note for buyers of battered cars - there is an expiration date for belt pretensioner squibs (this also applies to airbags). Typically, the frequency of their replacement is indicated in the instruction manual. And if you are not indifferent to the safety of everyone in your car, pay attention to this - usually after 10-15 years of operation, few manufacturers guarantee the correct operation of these protective equipment. Choose: either lay out money for a replacement, or take risks. By the way, after the accident, not all owners are ready to pay a tidy sum for the replacement of pyrotechnics. Many people prefer to restore the car, as they say, to a minimum, and when selling, so that buyers do not have suspicions about the accident of the instance, simply turn off the “light bulbs” by erasing all the “checks” and codes for the activated airbags and pretensioners. How not to get stuck on this, we'll talk more.

And a couple of tips for those who choose a used car. When inspecting, pay due attention to the belts, because they not only protect, they can tell about unpleasant incidents in the life of the car. For example, the general shabby condition will give out the intensive use of the iron horse, and local abrasions, melted tape web or damage from the eyes will tell about the accident experienced. Even if you decide to purchase this car, one of the first things to do should be "replace seat belts" (and possibly other restraint systems). Expensive? Or maybe it's time to reconsider your views on security. After all, health and life are priceless.

Anatoly Kucheryavenko,Vitaly Kabyshev
Photo: [email protected], Autoreview and manufacturers
Video: Euro NCAP

More videos about belts and pillows

Audi Q3 crash tests by Euro NCAP. The speed of riders by means of passive safety (programmed body deformation zone, belts and pillows) is extinguished smoothly, sensors register accelerations and loads that are safe for life and health. And before, and during, and after the impact, all "family members" remain in their places. According to the new method of conducting tests, Q3 received five stars. A frontal impact with a 40% overlap on a deformable barrier was made at a speed of 65 km/h. A side impact on a pole was carried out at a speed of 29 km / h. Side impact to the thigh area of ​​the driver by a 950-kilogram cart with a deformable element having a width of 1.5 meters, performed at a speed of 50 km/h

Manufacturers and independent organizations often conduct non-standard crash tests whose scenarios are taken from real life. Like a frontal oblique collision of two oncoming cars, coups, “meetings” with animals, collisions with unattached riders and cargo in the cabin

The seat belt (hereinafter - RB) is a tool to protect the motorist and car passengers while driving. Proper operation of the RB reduces the risk of injury to a person during an accident. In this article, you will learn what a two-point, multi-point and three-point seat belt is, how effective it is to use, and which one is better to use for the child and the stroller.

Types of seat belts

As we have already said, there can be several types of RB. They are divided among themselves according to the number of attachment points, as well as the design. Let's consider each of them in turn.

point-to-point

A two-point RB is an adjustable motorist protection that is attached at the waist.

femoral

For the first time such elements were put into operation in 1949. To date, this type of RB is used only in older cars, since it is unclaimed in passenger vehicles.

Belt

Belt, as well as femoral RB, are also practically not used today. About ten years ago, waist RBs were used by car manufacturers to equip rear seat protection. Today they can be found in some buses, but still such waist-belt RBs are actively used on airplanes, due to the fact that they can reliably keep a person in the seat. Thus, the passenger can comfortably sit on the seat during takeoff or landing. But neither children in the car, nor even strollers, can be fastened with such elements.

Shoulder

The popularity of shoulder RBs has also recently faded away. Such RBs run from the shoulder to the hip. Actively used by automotive manufacturers in the 60s of the last century. But, as practice has shown, they did not particularly protect motorists in case of accidents due to the fact that getting into an accident, a person could simply slip out from under the shoulder RB. Accordingly, neither children nor strollers with babies can be fastened with shoulder RBs.

Three-point

By design, the three-point seat belt is a single piece of protection that combines the shoulder and waist straps. A buckle runs along the segment of the RB, which allows the driver or passenger to use the design with convenience. Three-point seat belts in the event of an accident will be able to evenly distribute the braking force over several parts of the body - the femoral girdle, shoulders, and also the chest. And this, in turn, greatly facilitates the blow to a person. For the first time such RBs were put into operation in 1959.

Until the mid-80s of the last century, such straps, as a rule, were operated exclusively on the front seats. But over time, as tests have shown, traffic rules in many countries have been revised, as a result of which auto manufacturers began to install three-point RBs on both the front and rear seats. However, this applies to developed countries - here such a requirement was introduced in 2007.

Despite their relative safety, such RBs are not suitable for small children and strollers. If the dimensions are not typical, then the upper part of the strap in the event of an accident will come too close to the throat of the strapped person. As for strollers, do not even think about fastening a stroller with a child with a three-point RB.

According to their type, such straps are divided into:

1. Inertial. Such RBs are the most common and it is these straps that are found in almost all cars. If the inertial RB is not fastened, then in this state it is mounted on the side pillar of the car, and to use it, it is enough to pull it out of the installation site and install it in the lock. If you decide to unfasten the inertial RB, it will automatically return to its original position.
2. Non-inertial ones differ from inertial ones not only in that they do not return to their place when unfastened, but also in the way they are fastened. For example, an inertial RB will build the required length on its own, based on the dimensions of the driver or passenger. But as for non-inertial straps, in this case, a person must first set the length, and only then sit down and put it on. At the same time, it should be taken into account that it is not worth excessively loosening or overtightening such a RB, otherwise it may be fraught with an accident. Therefore, in any case, before use, such straps should be adjusted to suit you.
3. RB with tensioner. The tensioner device allows you to automatically adjust the holding force of the driver or passenger in an accident. Such RBs work themselves in case of an accident.

Multipoint

Multi-point elements include four-point and five-point seat belts. Today, they are most commonly used in race cars as well as in air transport. As for racing cars, multi-point RBs also serve as an additional side support component in them, in addition to the main function. That is, multi-point RBs allow you to keep the body of the driver of the car in his seat. It should also be noted that since the five-point RB are the most reliable, it is quite possible to fasten a stroller or a child with them. Almost all child restraints use five-point RBs.

Use of seat belts

In many countries, the traffic rules require the mandatory use of RB while driving a car, of course, if the car is equipped with straps. As for Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, in these countries the use of RB is mandatory not only for the driver, but also for passengers. If the straps are not used while driving, the traffic police officer has the right to issue a fine.

Retaining devices

As you can understand, ordinary RBs are designed for the growth of adults, so you cannot use them when transporting children and strollers. To do this, in order to protect the life and health of the child, there are restraints or special automobile so-called strollers - car seats. If a child is strapped in with a three-point harness without a seat, the child is at least five times more likely to suffer a neck injury than if they were seated in a special restraint.

In the Russian Federation, according to the rules of traffic rules, all children under the age of 12 must be transported in restraints, which can be used with a belt.

RB and airbags

The use of straps is mandatory if the vehicle is equipped with airbags, otherwise there is a high risk of injury. Please note that the principle of operation of airbags is thought out during development in such a way that the driver must fasten the RB when they are opened. Accordingly, if in the event of an accident the driver is not fastened, and his body can even shift a little, then the consequences of opening the airbags can be very sad. For example, if the blow is head-on, then the motorist will at least get hit on the head with a pillow, and believe me, this blow will be much stronger than if you just hit your head on a torpedo. Today, many car manufacturers equip their vehicles with an airbag lockout function if the RB is not fastened while driving.

Efficiency

Let's move on to the question of the effectiveness of car seat belts. Probably, it is not necessary to explain how important this element of protecting the driver and passengers is, because its effectiveness has been tested over the years and numerous tests in practice. We can say with confidence that in critical accidents, when the likelihood of survival is very low, it is the seat belts that provide protection. In general, the percentage of protection is about 70 out of 100%, which cannot be said about airbags. The latter allow you to protect only in 20% of cases.

... but why paw? :-)

This is how seat belts work. Let's find out the history of this device in the car.

Believe it or not, they came up with it in 1885. It was in the United States, where the inventor Edward J. Claghorn from New York received the first patent for a seat belt. Which was intended ... to fix the coachman. AT early XIX century seat belts proposed to use the English inventor George Cayley (Sir George Cayley) - for aircraft. And in 1913, the belt was first used by Adolphe Pégoud (Célestin Adolphe Pégoud), a French aviation pioneer and one of the first performers of the “dead loop” (he did it two weeks after Nesterov).

True, on May 11, 1903, Gustave-Désiré Leveau also patented the invention of “protective car brackets” for passengers in a vehicle. And in the same year, the five-point seat belt was invented by Louis Renault.

Why didn't you buckle up?

The inventors invented, changed, improved - and the manufacturers did not want to hear about any belts. Firstly, they were imperfect, and secondly, they had to be additionally attached to the seat. The first car, originally equipped with seat belts, was in 1948. In 1959, the patented three-point belts became a mandatory accessory for the Volvo PV 544 and P120 Amazon, and a couple of years later for many Saab cars.

The inventor of the three-point belt was Nils Bohlin, a Volvo aeronautical engineer who originally worked for Saab. In 1985, the German Patent Office even marked this invention as one of the eight that have brought humanity the greatest benefit in the last 100 years.

How it was:

On August 13, 1959, a brand new Volvo PV 544 left the factory of the Swedish automobile giant ‘Volvo’, equipped with the latest innovation - three-point seat belts. The name of the inventor of these miracle belts, which saved the lives of millions of people, has never thundered to the whole world and is known only to those who are specifically interested in this topic. Indeed, the Swede Niels Bohlin has always been and remains a modest engineer who, like many geniuses, was primarily interested in the actual process of invention, and not in the benefits that this could bring him.

Nils Ivar Bohlin was born in 1920 in the Swedish city of Härnösand, Sweden. Nils received a degree in mechanical engineering from the Swedish school Härnösand Läroverk in 1939, and in 1942 he already began working as an aircraft designer for the Saab aircraft manufacturer. It was then that he focused his attention on the development and improvement of ejection seats.

In the late 1950s, Bolin was already working with the automotive giant Volvo, where he was listed as a safety engineer. It was here that he invented his famous three-point seat belts, which forever staked out the name of the Swedish inventor in the history of the automotive industry. So, he worked on a seat belt for a year, and here the skills gained while working on ejection air seats for Saab came in very handy.
Patent for new type automobile belt No. 3043625 was received in the same 1959, and 10 years later, in 1969, Bolin was already head of the Central Research Department of Volvo.

Today, a three-point seat belt has become the standard for all cars, but it took some time until drivers around the world got used to the innovation and began to use it correctly. How did the new, three-point belts differ from the old ones? As it turned out, the fact that in the event of a collision they did not allow the driver to “peck” facing forward, and, in addition, the new seat belts snapped into place with one click.

He left Volvo in 1985. It is known that Nils was married, and he and his wife (Majbrict Bohlin) had two adopted children, and later had many grandchildren.

Nils Bohlin died on September 26, 2002, at the age of 82, from a heart attack; he was buried at Torpa Church in Ramfall, Sweden.

By the way, in Germany, belts with the sign “Gurt zum Anschnallen, Flugzeugbauart” first appeared in 1957 on serial Porsche and Mercedes-Benz W111 cars. On other German cars, the officially approved type of three-point seat belts appeared on April 1, 1961.

Appeared - and caused a storm of discontent. And not only manufacturers (most cars were not ready to install three-point belts), but also drivers who were tightly “chained”. Moreover, since 1967, seat belts have been installed on the rear seats of cars. But from January 1, 1974, the installation of belts on new German cars became mandatory. Although their use was still a matter of voluntary.

The volunteer was persuaded for a long time. In 1972, an inertial belt tensioner appeared, providing passengers with more freedom and safety. The belts have a red unfastening "button" of the American model. A broad campaign was held in the country under the slogan: Erst gurten, dann starten (First buckle up, then start). Nevertheless, as most often happens, only money could stop the “feat of a volunteer”. On August 1, 1984, driving without a seat belt became punishable - the fine was 40 DM. And the number of fastened drivers and passengers immediately soared to 90 percent.

And I had to buckle up!

By this time, Germany was trailing behind the countries that passed the law on the mandatory use of seat belts. Czechoslovakia (1969), Côte d'Ivoire (1970), Japan (1971), Australia, Brazil and New Zealand(1972). Sweden, by the way, made the use of belts "mandatory" only in January 1975.

Well, in the USSR, the mandatory use of seat belts in the front seats of all cars was introduced in 1979. Although the belts themselves were introduced back in 1969 on the 412th Moskvich (in 1973, a domestic development appeared, the author is Leonid Oskarovich Teder, Chief Specialist Estonian plant "Norma", which began production of belts), and since 1977 - on the "GAZ-24".

In a collision or emergency braking, the force of inertia is so great that it throws a person forward, and this threatens with serious injuries. Scientists have calculated that a small "compact car" that weighs no more than one ton at a speed of 50 km / h has a kinetic energy of 100 J. During a collision, this energy is used to deform the front of the body. The deformation ranges from 30 to 50 cm depending on the design of the machine. In a collision, the magnitude of the force that acts on the driver and passengers is determined according to Newton's second law by the formula F=ma, where m is the mass of the driver in kilograms, a– acceleration or deceleration in m/s2.

Let's do some simple calculations. If a car that is moving at a speed of 50 km/h collides with a fixed obstacle, and the deformation of the front of its body is 50 cm, then the deceleration value will be 385 m/s2. If we take the average driver, whose mass is 80 kg, then at this moment a force equal to 30,800 newtons will act on him.

What does it mean? This means that in a collision, the mass of the driver increases by 40 times! It is hardly necessary to explain what kind of injuries can be received in such a collision. At least not compatible with life.

THE USE OF SEAT BELTS CAN REDUCE THE RISK OF DEATH:

● in a frontal collision by 2.3 times
● Side impact 1.8 times
● when the vehicle rolls over 5 times

The Moscow Automobile and Road Institute conducted studies that made it possible to establish that most often passengers and drivers of cars get chest and head injuries. At the same time, the source of injuries to people who are driving is the steering column in 68%, the windshield in 28.5%, the instrument panel in 23.1%, the side pillar in 12.5% ​​and the roof in 3%. .

		Wounded, %
			lethal
Drivers	with straps
	without belts
Passengers in the front seat	with straps
	without belts

According to their design, all seat belts are divided into lap, diagonal and combined. If the waist and diagonal types of belts are not able to provide complete fixation of the torso, then the combined one, including both the waist and diagonal straps, guarantees complete safety. In turn, the combined three-point belts are of two types: inertial and non-inertial. Inertial seat belts are used on all modern cars. Such belts are retracted by a special device in an unfastened state.

Today, automakers are trying to improve safety systems as much as possible, including seat belts. Today, seat belts with pretensioners are very popular, the signal for which is the emergency deceleration of the car. They pull passengers and the driver to the seatbacks and react even faster than airbags.

Here are some of the T-shirts they're making right now:

The English company TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) conducted a very serious study and found out why people do not wear seat belts. These data will allow much more effective promotion of the use of this simple, but very effective means of saving lives.

It turns out that many drivers do not use a belt because ... they are afraid of it. A significant part of motorists believe that seat belts do more harm than good. Drivers who do not use seat belts claim that seat belts can choke the driver in a side impact, and they break ribs in a frontal collision. And drivers also believe that if a person is not fastened, then in a strong head-on collision, he will simply fly out through the windshield, fall on soft grass and stay alive.

The fear of burning out in a car in the event of an accident is also strong - it is believed that a driver wearing a seatbelt when a car ignites will not be able to quickly get out of the passenger compartment and eventually roast alive. But if you do not buckle up, then the fire will not be terrible. Yes, and when the car falls into the water, the fastened person will definitely have to choke and drown. And not fastened - will emerge.

Taxi drivers and truckers have their own fears. Many of them believe that by wearing a seat belt they are more likely to die at the hands of bandits. Taxi drivers are sure that if they are attacked by robbers, they will have time to quickly open the car door and run out into the street. And if they are fastened, they will be killed.
However, the most dangerous misconception concerns another. A huge part of the drivers sincerely believe that the use of a belt is not necessary if their car is equipped with airbags! But in the event of an accident, the pillow can cause very serious injuries to a person who is not wearing a seat belt.

Researchers have found that men, especially young men, are the most likely to not use seat belts. In addition, passengers in the back rows rarely fasten their seat belts. For some reason, they sincerely believe that the second row is much safer in an accident than the front seats. It is also interesting that drivers usually refuse seat belts in the evening and at night. In this case, motorists say that there are few cars on the roads and, they say, you can relax (at the same time, drivers forget that in this case the speed of cars becomes higher, and as a result, the severity of the accident increases).