Seat belts are basic protective devices used to protect drivers and passengers during car collisions. They first appeared and were used on horse-drawn carriages to prevent passengers from falling off the carriages. On May 20, 1902, at a car race in New York, a racer tied himself and his companions to their seats with several belts to prevent being thrown out of the car at high speed. During the race, the car they were driving accidentally crashed into the audience, killing two people and injuring dozens of people, but these racers survived because of the belts. These belts became the prototype of car seat belts. When they were used in cars for the first time, they saved the lives of users.
In 1959, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin invented the modern three-point seat belt and provided the patent to the world for free. In the 1940s, General Motors took the lead in making seat belts standard on Buick cars. As seat belts saved more and more lives, people gradually realized the important role of seat belts, and countries around the world passed legislation to make the installation and use of seat belts mandatory. Since the introduction of seat belts, 10 million kilometers of seat belts have been installed in more than 1 billion cars around the world, which is long enough to circle the earth's equator 250 times. In the past 40 years, countless lives have been saved by seat belts, proving the role of seat belts as "life protection ropes".
Tests by international research institutions show that the impact force of a car hitting a wall at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour is equivalent to falling from a height of 10 meters (about the height of a 3-story roof) to a concrete floor. When a car collides at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour, the impact force of a full frontal impact on a person weighing 50 kilograms will reach 1.5 tons; the forward impact energy acting on a four-year-old child who is neither wearing a seat belt nor using a child seat is 30 times the child's weight! This shows that when a high-speed car collides or brakes in an emergency, it will generate a huge inertial force, which can cause the driver and passengers to collide with objects such as the steering wheel, windshield, seat backs, doors, etc. in the car, and even throw the driver and passengers out of the seat or out of the car. The cushioning effect of the seat belt can absorb a large amount of impact energy, dissolve the huge inertial force, and firmly bind the driver and passengers to the seat to prevent the body from colliding with hard objects in the car or being thrown out of the car.
The function of the car seat belt is that once the vehicle collides or emergency braking is used, the pre-tensioning device will instantly tighten the loose seat belt when worn, and firmly tie the occupant to the seat to prevent accidents. Once the tightening force of the seat belt exceeds a certain limit, the force limiting device will appropriately relax the seat belt to keep the chest force stable.
The car seat belt is an effective safety protection device, known as the "life belt", which can prevent people from being injured in traffic accidents or reduce the degree of injury in the event of an accident. The driver and passengers who wear seat belts have twice the chance of surviving an accident than those who do not wear seat belts, and can also reduce the chance of injury by 50%. According to foreign statistics, the accident death rate of drivers who do not wear seat belts is about 37.7 times that of those who wear seat belts; the accident death rate of front-seat passengers who do not wear seat belts is about 10.6 times that of those who wear seat belts; the accident death rate of rear-seat passengers who do not wear seat belts is about 3.1 times that of those who wear seat belts. The death rate and serious injury rate of not using child safety seats are about 2.5 times that of using child safety seats. Car seat belts can not only effectively reduce casualties in traffic accidents, but also ensure correct driving posture and reduce driver fatigue.
After a car collision, the most common injuries to drivers and passengers are fractures or contusions of the head, chest, abdomen, and upper limbs. If the seat belt is used correctly, the injuries to drivers and passengers will be relatively reduced in the event of an accident. According to data, the use of waist and shoulder seat belts can reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries by about 40% to 50%. In a frontal collision accident, the use of seat belts can reduce the head and face injury rate by about 60%. The possibility of people who do not use seat belts being ejected from the car after a collision and the time they spend in the hospital for treatment after being injured are 10 times higher and 2 to 4 times higher than those who use seat belts. Practice has proved that the use of seat belts is an effective, convenient and economical safety measure.
Car seat belts are so important for protecting lives, but unfortunately, many people always ignore them. Not wearing seat belts is the third leading cause of road traffic deaths, second only to speeding and drunk driving. In addition, many drivers also have misunderstandings about the role of seat belts, believing that wearing seat belts is very effective when the speed is high; and there is no need to use seat belts when the speed is low. In fact, when a car is driving at a slower speed, if a collision or emergency braking occurs, although the inertia force generated is relatively small, it is still enough to make the driver and passengers unable to control their bodies and collide with the hard parts of the car such as the steering wheel and windshield, causing damage to the body.
Although seat belts can reduce and protect the degree of injury and casualties of drivers and passengers in traffic accidents such as car collisions, they must be used correctly, otherwise their role will be greatly reduced. First, check the technical status of the seat belt regularly. If there is any damage, replace it immediately. Secondly, to use it correctly, the three-point waist seat belt should be tied to the hip as much as possible, not to the waist, and the shoulder seat belt should not be placed under the arm, but should be slanted across the chest. It can only be used by one person, and it is strictly forbidden to use it with two people. Do not twist the seat belt when using it. Third, when using the seat belt, do not let it press on hard and fragile objects, such as mobile phones, glasses, pens, etc. in your pocket. Fourth, do not let the seat back tilt too much, otherwise it will cause the seat belt to not stretch or shrink normally, affecting the use effect. The buckle of the seat belt must be fastened to prevent it from falling off when subjected to external force and failing to play a protective role.
For your life safety and family happiness, whether on urban roads, highways, or low-grade roads, whether drivers or passengers, you must fasten your seat belt according to regulations.
----------From China New
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