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Abstract
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Protection against injury in the event of collision or rollover has been given steadily increasing attention by the automotive stylist, as well as the engineer, and has been featured during recent years, even though major efforts continue to be concentrated on avoiding the accident.
In each area-injury prevention and accident prevention--progress made through further development and refinement of features already introduced has been fully as important to the motorist as the more conspicuous initial introduction of each feature. Today, seat belts, for example, as offered by the automobile manufacturer, are not only twice as strong as those required to meet the original CAA specifications prevailing in 1955 and 1956, but also have other attributes increasing both their protectiveness and the likelihood that they will be used properly.
For example, elongation has been substantially decreased, and the ease of adjustment to a snug fit has been greatly increased. Appearance has been greatly improved with regard to both webbing and hardware and installations have been "cleaned up." This is much the same sort of program that has led to steady improvement in headlights and signal lights and in other accident-reducing features.
Progress has been particularly gratifying in those areas in which objective performance standards related to safety have been created and adopted. Thus the establishment and progressive upgrading of the SAE performance standards for automotive seat belts have contributed to the product improvement program. These mutually interacting programs of product improvement and the development of minimum safety performance standards have been similar to those that have prevailed in connection with automotive glazing and with brake fluid, as well as with headlights, turn signals, and stop lights. Final choice of design for any portion of the vehicle must necessarily involve coordination of safety considerations with those of cost and styling. Moreover, consideration must also be given to convenience of use and willingness on the part of the motorist to maintain the equipment, as well as to use it. The industry's experience with dual chamber tires, cushion sun visors, and windshield washers has been repeated with seat belts and now with headrests.
In some cases there has had to be compromise between safety aspects related to risk of accident and safety aspects related to risk of injury. |