Young Chris Kevin
Seat belts also known as safety belts are safety features found in your vehicle. It functions by stopping the wearer from hitting hard object inside the car or even from hitting other passengers. In severe car accidents, it prevents the one wearing it from being thrown outside the car. With its safety functions, all the states have law prohibiting driving without seat belts.
Seat belts are also of different types namely: lap, sash, lap and sash, three-point, belt-in-seat (BIS), experimental production car safety belts, five-point harness, six-point harness, and seven-point harness seat belts. How could you distinguish one from the other? The lap seat belt comes with an adjustable strap that goes over the waist. It is now rarely used except for some rear middle seats. The sash seat belt has also adjustable strap however it goes over the shoulder. It is mainly used in 1960s and unfortunately its benefits are limited since during collision, it is very easy to slip out. The lap and sash is a combination of the two types aforementioned. It is mainly used in 1960s and 1970s. The three-point seat belt is just similar to the lap and sash, but one single continuous length of webbing. It spreads out the energy during collision over the chest, pelvis, and shoulders. In the BIS seat belt, the shoulder belt attachment is to the backrest. It is allegedly safer during rollover especially with 4-8 years old children. The experimental production car safety belts includes several varieties like the criss-cross that forms a cross brace across the chest, 3+2 point seatbelt that is similar to the criss-cross but with improved protection against rollovers and side impacts, four point where the suspenders are attached to the backrest rather than to the frame of the car, and inflatable safety belts with airbag included for the rear seat belts. The five point harness seat belt is safer and is typically found in the child safety seats and in racing cars. The six point harness is similar to the latter but it includes extra belt between the legs. It is mainly used in racing. Finally, the seven point harness seat belt uses a combination harness consisting five points with redundant lap-belt. But where do these seat belts originated?
In the late 1800s, George Cayley invented seat belts. Another man in the name of Adolphe Pegoud introduced it in aircraft for the first time. However it is not common on aircraft until the 1930s. US Patent was granted to Edward J. Claghorn in 1885 for safety belt. In the 1920s, the use of seat belts is advocated in cars. Several modifications and testing happened as the year passed, until in 1970, the first law worldwide making seatbelt wearing compulsory for drivers and front seat passengers was passed by the state of Victoria, Australia. Now, where’s the Physics in seat belts?
Seat belts increases the time of impact, and by recalling impulse and momentum, it will result to lesser impact force. Simply, by increasing the time before you hit an object inside the vehicle, the time you come in contact with it, the injury is lesser. In some cases, the stopping force totally prevents you from hitting other passengers or hard materials inside your vehicle. What if you’re not wearing a seat belt at all? The answer is simply to hit your self in hard materials that can cause injury. In that case, there’s no force preventing your contact to other hard materials or passengers, so it will only take just a wink of an eye for your contact. What could be the impact force? Of course, it will be greater and so with the injuries you may get.
With all those things mentioned, would you drive or ride a vehicle without having a seat belt? You might answer NO, and in that case you are protecting yourself from unavoidable injuries you may get during car crashes and collisions. Fasten your seat belt and have a safe trip!
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