Toyota Safety

The effectiveness of seatbelts is undeniable. According to a research report from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA), seatbelts save approximately 13,000 lives in the United States each year. While seatbelts do occasionally contribute to serious injury or death, most safety experts agree that the benefits of wearing seatbelts far surpass the risks associated with them. In fact, the NHTSA maintains that seatbelts reduce the risk of death for a front-seat car occupant by about 50 percent.

So how is it that a small strip of fabric can prove to be so critical in the event of a car accident? The answer is simple: inertia. Inertia is an object's tendency to keep moving in the same direction until something else works against its motion. Simply stated, inertia is every object's resistance to changing its speed and direction of travel.

Apply the concept of inertia to a moving car. If a car is traveling at 50 mph, inertia wants that car to continue moving at the same speed and in the same direction. Moreover, inertia wants the occupants within that car to maintain the same speed and direction. However, imagine what happens if that same car hits a telephone pole. While the car might stop as a result of the impact, the occupants within the car will continue to move at the same speed and in the same direction until another force impedes their movement. Just as the pole slowed the car down, the dashboard, windshield or the road would slow the occupants down by exerting a tremendous amount of energy. This could possibly result in serious injury or death. Therefore, that small strip of fabric in the form of a seatbelt proves to be indispensable in fighting the potentially deadly effects of inertia.

While seatbelts are great at helping to prevent injuries in the event of a car accident, they are only effective when worn properly and the passenger is sitting upright in the seat as far back as possible and not leaning against the door. When a seatbelt is secured correctly, it will apply most of the stopping force to the clavicle, sternum, rib cage and pelvis, which are relatively sturdy parts of the body.

However, in high-speed crash scenarios, a seatbelt can inflict serious damage regardless of proper application. As a passenger's inertial speed increases, it takes a greater force to bring the passenger to a stop. In other words, the faster a passenger is traveling on impact, the harder the passenger will push on the seatbelt.

In an effort to limit the risk of seatbelt-related injury with high-speed crashes, some seatbelt systems use load limiters to help minimize injury. There are several different types of load limiters (from simple to advanced seatbelt systems), but the goal of each is always the same. The basic idea of a load limiter is to release a little more excess belt webbing when a great deal of force is applied to the belt, therefore reducing the amount of force applied to the passenger.

In summary, seatbelts are imperfect safety devices, yet the benefits of using them far surpass the risks associated with them. Toyota is one of many auto manufacturers constantly looking to improve the effectiveness of seatbelts and other safety systems within their vehicles. As far as Toyota is concerned, complacency is not an option when it comes to improving the safety standards of their vehicles.