How Do Seatbelts Work?
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- Опубликовано: 18 ноя 2022
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Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Animator: Eli Prenten
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References
[1] Seat Belt History Timeline, AAA Magazine, 2021 magazine.northeast.aaa.com/da...
[2]www.irvinproducts.com/founding/
[3] www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
[4] connecticuthistory.org/buckli...
[5] Seat-belts 1949-1956 Final Report archive.org/details/seatbelts...
[6] www.digitaltrends.com/cars/th...
[7] www.sae.org/publications/tech...
[8] www.forbes.com/sites/douglasb...
[9] auto.howstuffworks.com/car-dr...
[10] sg.news.yahoo.com/sleeping-vo...
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It's a real eye opener to sit in a race car w/a 5 point harness. Once you're strapped in you're held against the seat & absolutely cannot move! You can tilt your head forward alittle but that's it. Modern seat belts are the the height of comfort compared to what it takes to keep a race car driver safe. I wear my seat belt all the time,not for what I might do but for what someone else might do!
I have a blazing fast car , it has adaptive seatbelts that pin you into the seat when cornering at high speeds, I can’t imagine driving with out that feature… I would fly out of the seat when cornering at high speed.
Safety aside, a race car would be impossible to drive without tight seatbelts, you absolutely need support during hard braking.
If you think race cars are tight belts try aerobatic planes, cuz we do negative G and hang upside down you need to be so tight you feel squashed to hell just normally as even when you think your well stepped in on the ground, once you do some negative G you realise there’s still slack to wiggle, so much so that we have bloody Ratchet straps for our lap strap… and god forbid you wanna jump out you have to pull on that quick release pretty hard.
Once I sat in a vehicle with a 6 point harness I’ve wanted to install them in every vehicle. Honestly I don’t know why they aren’t standard equipment.
gay
Seatbelts saved the lives of me and my wife. We got rear ended by a speeding truck on a curve, with a steep drop on the outside. Car slammed into the barrier and crumpled, windshield was gone, and if we hadn't had our seatbelts on, we would have been thrown out that missing front window, over the edge, and we would have fallen to our deaths. Seatbelts saved us.
Unfortunately the man who hit us was intoxicated, and had forgotten his. Still feel a bit queasy thinking about seeing that fella's body all tangled up in the now crushed rear end of my car.
He wasn't dead yet, but he sure as hell wasn't alive either, if that makes any sense. It was horrifying, and we couldn't do anything for him, nor could the EMT's. Watched him stop breathing while passers by stopped to render aid.
He had two kids apparently. Wear your dang seatbelts, folks.
Good riddance
Damn.
Also don't drink and drive
Excellent story - glad he is dead though.
Drinking and driving should be punished by death.
It's not just drinking and driving guys. I used to be a volunteer firefighter. Went to one crash where the guy was simply driving home from work when a steering linkage in his truck broke. He left the road and was half ejected from the driver's side window as his truck proceeded to roll over him at least 2 times. This being a smaller town, many of the first responders knew him. I didn't, so I volunteered to load him into the body bag so his friends wouldn't have to. It's a memory I wish I didn't have burned into my memory. Also, somehow, his parents found out and were at the top of the hill. All they wanted to know was if they could have an open casket. I had to tell them maybe... his chest isn't the right shape, but the funeral home might be able to do something. Apparently, he was married with two young kids who had to grow up without their dad. WEAR YOUR DAMN SEAT BELT!
I was born in 63 and began driving in 81, so I remember how uncomfortable seat belts were back in the 70s and how we hated wearing them - so we didn't - and our parents didn't care either. The belts also didn't retract, so they were ugly and a mess to organize, so when I got my first car (73 Nova) I actually removed them from the car, i actually unbolted them and threw them away. Of course now decades later it terrifies me to think that I actually did something so stupid! And of course all the people who drove in my car could care less if it had seat belts. Seat belt technology has come a long way since then, and so have attitudes about wearing them, and I'm very grateful for that!
Almost same years, different experiences. Our West Coast high school drivers ed course required we put on our seatbelts every time we sat in a car or simulator. Class cars had dual brake pedals- second one for the instructors. Every so often, they'd slam on the brakes while pulling away from a curb or stop sign, to let you know how it felt to be in a low speed collision. Kind of cemented the seatbelt experience. I shared those learnings by requiring everybody, family and friends alike riding in my car, to connect their seatbelts before I started the motor. Every so often someone resists, and I'll just wait, patiently looking at them, expectantly, until they comply.
@@The-KP loves that passive aggressiveness...
tho to some, taxi, and now ride-hires, doesn't need seatbelts, even if the danger is all the same... it's the other parties game of chance in final destination accident that happen on you.
I remember this same attitude in Europe in the 80's and 90's. There's still some of it today in the lesser educated groups.
That said, this is exactly what is happening with COVID and masking/air filtration right now. Once cumulative long-covid decimates the population in about 10+ years time, we'll look back at the ignorant conservative messaging and say "The scientists were trying to tell us the whole time..."
@@PrograError Oh, I'm direct! With newbies in the car, I start by saying, "We'll depart soon as everybody's belted in." Surprisingly, some resist with words- "Seatbelts make me feel uncomfortable," and "Seatbelts are itchy" and the hilariously absurd, "People who wear seatbelts get into accidents."
@@The-KP "if you don't put it on, it's you that will get into an accident. literally."
Wm. Doizer was friends with the head of the NTSB. In 1966, Dozier was asked by him to help raise awareness of seatbelts and encourage people to use them. Dozier, producer of the Batman TV series on ABC, had the writers include Batman and Robin using their seatbelts. Usage increased due to kids pestering their parents to do as Batman did when starting the Batmobile.
Back when mainstream media was used for good
"Humanity thanks you for your service." (+ Respect)
Brilliant. This is why what we put in kids shows really matters.
Man Volvo is really kind for not patenting the seatbelt!
One of those few instances where corporate interests were overridden by basic humanity.
Just to be a bit pedantic -- they did patent it. But then they licensed that patent for free to anyone who wanted to build a car with those seat-belts. All they had to do was ask -- no money was requested for the licensing of the patent.
No doubt.
So many things just shouldn't be allowed to be patented or only allowed for a 5-10 year period because so many things save lives but because of greed end up costing lives or being a huge burden on people. Like insulin for example. Luckily here it doesn't cost much but my sister is dependent on it to live and without it she would be dead.
Remember Volvo ads few years back? “The ultimate driving machine (BMW) beaten by a station wagon.” And its safety and longevity. So I got one, and it’s an awesome machine I tell you.
Not sure exactly how it works, but in many cars, if you fully extend the seatbelt, it'll go into "baby seat mode" when retracting, until fully retracted. In baby seat mode, no matter how slowly you pull, it won't come out at all, allowing you to firmly attach toddler seat and booster seats.
Cool story sis.
So that's why they do that, i alays wondered way they had that behavior when fully extended.
I've seen a few heavy people get stuck in their seatbelts because of this. I wonder if there should be some sort of emergency release. Like a button on the spool that would temporarily disengage the lock if needed.
@@qwerty2008100 If you weigh more than 300 pounds you should be walking dawg
@@sneedchuck5477 Some people just pull out the entire seatbelt out of curiosity. I know I did that a few times as a kid to find out how long it is.
The advanced engineering that goes into normal everyday devices is remarkeable.
And extremely unappreciated.
It took decades to get where we are now. Building on shoulders of giants...
the amount of NASA invention in everyday lives is also mindblowing for the amount of budget they get these days...
And there you go unappreciative of autocorrect. 😂 So remarkable.
The channel New Mind has a bunch of cool videos on stuff like this, especially car components. I highly recommend them to anyone a fan of this channel!
Seatbelt saved my life and my brothers in a rollover accident on a county highway. Unfortunately it didn't save my dad. I currently drive a Volvo and am so thankful for all the work they have done to create such a safety necessity
Sorry for your loss.
Malaysian here - First of all, I'm very sorry to hear the loss of your friend. Secondly, I couldn't agree with you more regarding my country's road safety record.
I still remember sitting in my club president's car and I noticed that the rear seatbelts seem to have been removed from the car - l remembered how scared I was hoping that a crash wouldn't happen - or else I would risk launching myself into the driver's seat! Thankfully we are all safe and our drive went smoothly.
It goes to show how shockingly lightly some people take road safety over here
We have the most advanced automobiles in this day and age.
The King of the Road is the world's first fully-flight capable vehicle in production.
I feel like the incredible safety of automobiles means that less people are getting into situations where they or a loved one is getting i jured or killed and they are completely losing all understanding of how dangerous cars are.
Also a Malaysian here, I remember at some point every passengers are required by law to wear seatbelt (before this it was only the front iirc?), I'm not sure how strict they are enforcing this but before this, people would give you weird look if you wear your seatbelt at the rear (at least that was my experience).
Also, thinking back now, the middle seat at the rear is scary as fck. There's basically nothing in front you to pad you from a crash, and the two point harness seatbelt feels like it's gonna cut you in half.
@@bangerxshane2962 yet we still lack basic common sense
@@Summer-xu8qu Many cars now have a three point seat belt for the back middle.
9:05 those car seats forced to watch their friend be tortured to learn the lesson chills my bones.
Maybe I'm just too optimistic, I thought it was like them cheering on their mates
Before reading your comment i didn't really look closely and didn't realize that those aren't live audiences in some conference
There’s some level of pride in some Swedish history textbooks about the three-point seatbelt that I’ve read.
Of course.
Many years ago, when I was back at school, 4 guys from my year got into a car accident. The car tumbled several times and fell upside down.
3 of the guys easily climbed out of the car with minor injuries. The fourth died on the spot.
The 3 were wearing their seatbelts. The fourth wasn't.
Wear your seatbelts. They can save your life.
those other 3 are lucky they didn't die from the 4th flying around inside the vehicle like a fucking projectile. This is actually a common cause of death in accidents where one or more passengers didn't wear a seatbelt, and the risk is higher for each person doing so
One time on the way back from a youth event we came upon a van also coming back from that youth event that had rolled in the ditch. Single rollover I believe, landed on it's wheels, everyone buckled as far as I know, and everyone walked away from that incident with nothing more than a serious scare and some minor lacerations. Because the van was totalled and we had some room in our car we ended up giving one or two of the kids a ride home.
Yep, The claim "but I won't be able to get out quickly if the car goes underwater" is BS. If you are knocked unconscious because you weren't buckled in, you _absolutely_ won't be able to get out of the car in time.
@@TheOriginalFaxon You are right on the money.
Bruh, this anecdote is told to nearly all high school aged kids. That ish never happened.
It's amazing how far cars and their safety has come. Really something to appreciate and not take for granted.
ikr cars from the 60s look so cool but are so so dangerous compared to cars 10 years ago
Its such an oddly counterintuitive idea that older cars which would outwardly fare better in a crash vs a newer vehicle but the passengers would fare much and likely turned to paste.
The idea of these direct safety devices is easy to understand, but crumple zones and impact distribution that make modern cars look so fucked up in crashes, are hard to wrap your head around.
But ultimately its proven, accidents that would have been near guaranteed lethal back then are surprisingly survivable now.
I likely wouldn’t be writing this if not for a seatbelt. Walked away from a bad accident. When I went to the scrapyard a few hours after to get my things from the car, the tow truck driver looked at me and said, “YOU’RE ALIVE?!” Haha.
Must've thought he was seeing a ghost lol
Tell him you've come back
Cars these days are INCREDIBLE. Honestly the most convinceing reason to buy new these days is the safety features. Every car from the 90s or 2000s is basically a deathtrap by comparison and with electric cars having almost nothing but crumple points they seem to be getting even safer. Whats funny though is because of the use of crumple points, despite being objectively safer vehicles, car crashes tend to look ten times worse just from appearance haha. You car probably looked so mangled because it did exactly what it was supposed to, which is turn into a crumpled hunk of metal with a small cavity for you to survive in.
@@darin7553 Arnie voice: "I'm back"
@@duckqueak I'm simply fascinated by our engineering nowadays, especially when things are designed to fail, like the crumple point and how they design engines to shear off in case of crash landing. It's a delicate balance and it's awesome.
Also, fun fact, the "concrete" slabs at the end of all runways is one of such example. It's designed to be crushed and absorb all force from a plane landing gear to immediately stop the plane with minimal damage to the craft.
The fact that the inventor released the patents free of charge is simply amazing
Patents shouldn't exist
There are definitely arguments for patents, but i think at the very least there should be limits on what can be patented and they should be much shorter
@@sage5296 Patents exist to encourage innovation and give companies a way to profit off of creating innovative ideas. Once they start to get in the way of safety or creating better products patents become an obstacle to innovation not a boon. IP laws are a serious issue because codifying that you can profit from an idea alone has led to so much innovation, but it has also lead to a lot of nasty anticonsumer and unethical practices too(think insulin). It needs to be seen on a case by case basis. I believe the jist is that you should be able to get your moneys worh but after that you either have to licence it to anyone who pays(a reasonable amount) or its free. Like for example could you imagine if ford could just patent the idea of a tire or a wheel itself and refused to let any other company makes cars with wheels?? It wouldn't be reasonable. It takes some nuance but you just need to make sure IP laws reward innovation without stiffling innovation or sacrificing safety/ethics.
My uncle was once rear-ended hard enough that despite wearing a seatbelt, he ended up ejected from the car and into the pavement head-first. I may not know exactly how much worse his head injury would have been without a seatbelt eating up kinetic energy by being ripped to shreds while causing severe bruises, but those rips and those bruises were definitely the only reasons his health and car insurance gave him full coverage, keeping the bills paid while he was in the hospital and undergoing physical therapy.
ALWAYS wear a seatbelt!
That must have been a shit seat belt.
As mentioned in the video, they are designed to shred beyond a certain limit, else the body would get ripped in half.
@BradynLee09 I hope learning about the financial benefits to wearing a seatbelt will convince him to wear one. Your situation sucks, I hope your dad will choose to wear seatbelts soon.
i knew about most of how a seatbelt worked, but gotta say i never knew about the pretensioner! it’s remarkable how compact and reliable it all is
Seat belts are more important than most people realize. They once saved me from serious injury or death and I have seen many cases where people would have died without them. Some people argue that the seat belt can cause damage (internal bleeding and such). While this may be true in some cases, if enough force was generated that the seat belt caused internal bleeding, it would have been enough to kill the person for sure if they had not been wearing it at all. You will be much better off having all that force distributed across the area of the seat belt than having it concentrated on your chest by the steering wheel… or on your head from the windshield. Amazing video! I always enjoy them and learn something new every time. Keep up the good work!
There was some 'teething trouble' with early designs killing people for various reasons, modern ones are 'good enough for government work' safety wise - although one thing that's sort of pushed the statistics back the other way is that now alot of safety in the frame of cars is being sacrificed because less weight means better gas mileage.
As clever as seatbelts are, it's airbags that fascinate me. They have to fully inflate in such a quick time that it's literally unbelievable that they work at all. I had a friend who worked in a factory where they were designed and made, so I've got a pretty good idea of how they work. But, even so, I still find it incredible that they work so fast.
Beyond the blink of an eye
Its basically an explosion inside of a pillow. If it would have more explosives than needed it would shred the pillow and no-one would be surprised why its this fast 😅
it’s remarkable that something as crazy sounding as basically a pillow grenade just works and is taken for granted now
@@sage5296 The power of the scientific method and relying on testing and statistics not ancendotes and "Well my buddy said....". Too many people take it for granted these days....
ruclips.net/video/mxHJ3O4iudw/видео.html
I saw this the other day. It’s fascinating how dangerous airbags could be if the manufacturer uses the wrong chemical reactions to get the airbag to explode and how it’s taken decades to get the airbag to work correctly without being overly expensive.
I've always worn a seatbelt no matter how short a car journey is. Never without it.
It's in my default rhythm of starting the car, to put it on.
You've probably seen plenty of videos of drivers losing control and slamming into stationary cars at gas stations or parking lots. So it makes sense to have the belt on even if the car is not moving so might as well leave it on until you step out of the car and putting it on right after entering. So if anyone bumps into you (even a small nudge from a heavy vehicle can slam you into your dashboard), you'll have the belt and airbags helping you out.
most accidents happen in a ten block radius from the house.
@@tardvandecluntproductions1278 Mmmm same here. Its become hardwired
@@tardvandecluntproductions1278 not in a B15 Sentra is sit down, close door, key turn key to run, while fuel pump is priming put seat belt on, then crank.
6:50 earlier tensioners were mechanical. A simple weight hit a blank cartridge, firing into the chamber with a piston inside.
The seatbelt saved my life when I crashed at the Nordschleife at about 80km in the side railing. It did leave a big blue mark on my shoulder.
As my uncle once said: "It is better to be bruised than buried"
After helmets began seeing use during the first World War, rates of head injury began to skyrocket. This wasn't because helmets hurt soldiers, but because shrapnel from shells that would have killed was now stopped by the helmet.
there’s a great video on youtube about the engineering that goes into side rails as well, there’s a remarkable amount of engineering there too!
@@Clumrat Thats a great example about why i think stats should be taught in highschool lol. People constantly misinterpret data in ways like this. I think they even used an argument like that against seatbelts.
25 year old here. I’ve been driving since I was 17, but more importantly I’ve been a passenger at times my whole life.
In living memory I can’t remember a time where I didn’t instinctively put my seatbelt on when getting into a car. Be it as a kid, a driver or even as an immensely drunk passenger, it’s an instinctive and almost unconscious decision.
My point being after that context bomb above;
I don’t understand how there are people in the comments actively championing and bragging about how they don’t wear seatbelts.
I understand that people may have experiences or have heard stories on how seatbelts have killed people or how not wearing one allowed someone to survive a crash.
But the above is almost a statistical anomaly. That’s not even considering how people attribute survival through blind luck during a crash to the fact they were not wearing a seatbelt.
Wearing a seatbelt is objectively better than not wearing one, whether it’s a legal requirement or not in your country, you’re far more likely to survive an accident when you are wearing one.
That’s just a fact. So please everyone wear their seatbelts.
When you get into a car, no matter your role in the vehicle or relationship to the driver….put your belt on.
Stay safe everyone.
I went off the edge of a road up in the mountains near where I live, went like 60 feet down an embankment in the woods. Rolled over a log but managed to walk out of it with only a few scratches, I was absolutely saved by my seatbelt holding me where I was and the cab of the car holding up when it rolled (RIP 1997 Nissan Maxima, amazing car)
I live in a SEA country that you might expect, still have a low public awareness on the importance of wearing safety belts. I'm thankful my parents are "unusually" strict with wearing a seatbelt whenever we get in a car ,and now it's just a reflex for me. These days a lot of cars have been fitted with seatbelt alarm that buzzes when it detects a seatbelt isn't being fitted while the seat is occupied, and so does cars in my workplace. It bothers me a lot when my colleagues fit the seat belt _before_ they sit and only sling on the diagonal torso bit, just to avoid the alarm from going off and pass the police check.
It bit back when we had an accident. The driver swerved a c*** going on the wrong side of the road, then we hit a pole on the side of the road. Pretty much the biggest crash I've been on tbh. The front of the car sunk in, airbags went off, the driver and me (at the back) wore the seatbelt correctly, no serious injuries, the front passenger did the "half seatbelt" thing, slid off his seat and broke his legs. Happened 4 months ago and he still can't walk.
The lack of awareness, common sense how the seatbelt really work and the government doesn't do anything to promote use of seatbelt. Many car accident casualties in my country is easily avoidable if people use the seatbelt.
I’ll add my story to the plethora already here as a way to encourage seat belt useage. A few months ago, I was driving home from doing yardwork in my grandparents backyard all day. I was turning left at an intersection that I had the right of way for, when someone who was drunk and speeding ran the red light and T-boned my car right at the driver side door where I was. Last thing I remember from that is seeing pieces of metal flying around and then nothing. I guess I came to smelling smoke because I remember my first thought was, “holy shit is my car on fire? I need to get out of here.” What I eventually figured out that happened was that when the car hit me my body really started trying to move forward and my head hit a few things along the way. However the combination of my seatbelt and full airbag deployment protected my head enough so that I’m writing this today. I had to spend some time in the hospital recovering and I’m still doing physical therapy as part of the recovery process for the damage done to my C3 section of my spine, but when I got to see my car go to the wrecker, I really got a grasp for how lucky I am. Seatbelts and other safety measures in cars saved my life and save countless lives every year. It is incredibly sad that people still die because they won’t wear their seatbelt and they need to learn that the benefits outweighs the risks. Wear your seatbelt, it could save your life, after all you never know when something bad could happen.
Newer vehicles are definitly designed to crumple, allowing the energy from the collision to be absorbed by the vehicle and not pass through the passengers. Old steel vehicles sometimes wouldn't bend at all from a collision. I remember some people thinking that was better, they hates the "cheap and weak" modern vehicle frames. But that full steel frame would throw most of its energy right through the passengers.
@@PerfectDeath4 \*cough cough\* cybertruck
@The Knight Who Says NI
Glad you survived
Unfortunately most who refuse to wear a seatbelt refuse to do so out of arrogance. "It won't happen to me" attitude.
Funny enough my brother who both refuses to wear seatbelts and doesn't wear a helmet while riding his motorcycle almost died because someone else hit him.
The lesson to learn is that it's not you that gets to decide if you crash or not everyone else gets a vote too.
I heard a saying that goes "C3 4 5 keeps the diaphragm alive"You were lucky to survive that. hope there is no permanent damage
My dad is an anesthesiologist, he told me about one time he had to sedate a patient that had lost an eye because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and he hit the airbag really really hard
To be fair that can happen while wearing a seat belt too, did the crash happen while he was turning because if so, i bet he was crossing his arms over the steering wheel instead of shuffling the wheel around while steering. When the air bag goes off and your arm is in the way of it, the air bag wins, and the only direction your arm has to go is towards your face. So you end up punching yourself in the face with the force of a small explosion.
ruclips.net/video/4KPWlIDsSZE/видео.html basically imagine that wheel coming down on your face.
Another reason for making sure passengers don't put their feet up on dashboards and such, great way of them kneeing themselves into a new face.
I distinctly remember, as a youngster in the 60's, when a local help-the-public agency held a seat belt fair at a local shopping center. Anyone could drive in and have belts (only lap belts at the time) installed in their car. This was in the Detroit area, where all the most important car-related things happened (in that era, anyway). My dad was one of the guys installing belts for all comers, for a few weekends one summer.
Love your videos dude. You’ve gotten really good at this, and I really appreciate learning just how crafty and creative some of these inventions are. Appreciate your hard work!
Two of my uncles died after getting thrown from a minivan. They were not wearing seatbelts. Three others in the car were wearing seatbelts and they survived.
Thanks for this video. I was born in the 80's myself and While I don't recall my seat belt usage as a child I know even than they were sometimes scoffed at. But since my teens and onward I automatically wear my seat belt and get annoyed when drivers don't give me time to put it on.
I was born in 81' and me and my cousins were always paying in the back of the Oldsmobile Hatchback or even worse, in the back of a 75 Ford Pickup with the very large dog on the freeway freeway. The cab of the truck was for the adults.....who were also drinking. .... Now days that wouldn't be tolerated by anyone.
My grandma is from the generation that subscribed to the idea that seatbelts cause more damage. She recently got in a black ice related accident and now has a dent in her head from the dash.
Still won't wear one lmao
Maybe tell her about survivorship bias.
She’s unfortunately holding onto an idea formed when seatbelts were far less sophisticated and far less effective. It might not even have been true back then, but it’s a lot further from the truth now.
My mom told me that a common argument against wearing seatbelts (before it was legally required) was that they'd wrinkle your clothes.
"Sure I might die, but my suit will be immaculate. "😅
ah yes, being thrown out of your seat or your car would definitely leave no wrinkles on your suit 😂
It's funny the excuses people come up with.
damn, it’d sure be a shame if that immaculate dress got shredded across 30 meters of pavement...
Love your content, thanks for this video, a very important topic ☺
Definitely the best ad for brilliant so far! Asking the right questions when you don't know what you don't know is such a fascinating problem
Your videos look great and I also plan to watch them to improve my english because the quality of sound and your way of speaking are amazing. Thank you for videos like that ☺️
The seatbelt fixates you with the only thing that can break at the speed you are going with it: The vehicle. WIthout it, the car would slow down without you, making you break for yourself (either inside or outside of the vehicle). Its like a parachute for ground level.
*brake, not break. Message sounds a bit strange using break :)
FYI, it's spelled 'braking', not 'breaking'. They both make the car stop, but one is voluntary, the other is not.
Came to the comments for this. I do a lot of technical writing and this stuck out to me so quick
Actually, if your brakes break you have the opposite issue...
@@traveller23e Yo dawg, I heard you like brakes...
What an excellent video. I grew up in the '70's and '80's - in the early part of my life, we had a Volvo station wagon and a '65 Dodge Dart. The latter had lap belts that were installed as an option. The former had one of the earlier versions of the 3-point harness. Even in the '70's the 3-point harness was considered somewhat novel. By the time we replaced the Dart with an early '80's Toyota Camry, the 3-point harness was pretty much standard, yet many people still refused to wear them.
Like you, I remember when the tide began to change, in no small part due to enormous public service campaigns and enforcement of belt laws. Thankfully, I'm certain it saved the lives of some friends and loved ones along the way.
Seatbelts saved the lives of both my father and I and to this day I still consider them to be the most important innovation of automobile history.
When I was 13 we were driving home from a baseball game that had gone far into extra innings at around 11 at night. As we were passing an off ramp, a car that was operated by a driver that we later learned was drunk flew out of the exit and into our lane and struck us at the rear, pointing us towards a heavily wooded forest. My father jerked the wheel towards the median, saving us from striking a tree but putting us on course to hit the median nearly head on. The impending collision led to my father slipping a disk in his back and myself to experience lifelong side effects from the severe whiplash, but we both walked out of that car alive and in relatively good condition.
It's fascinating how the technology has changed. Cars several decades old used pendulum or inertia electro/mechanical switches with the clock spring. I'd love to see your take on modern day SFI or FIA racing belts as well as HANS devices and the sled tests they use to develop them. It feels so unnatural to drive with the belt off. Open sourcing the original patent must have saved countless lives. Thank your for another awesome video.
I grew up in with a family vibe that seat belts didn’t matter and they didn’t actually help. Until me and my father volunteered for the fire department. About 3 months in I realized, after seeing some horrible wrecks, seat belts do matter, and they do help. Now, I feel naked without having in on, just to move my truck in the driveway.
Excellent, well edited video!!
As someone who's survived a 110kmh (66mph) head on crash with a big red Kangaroo that came in through the windscreen and then hit a granite rock wall while the Kangaroo thrashed around on my lap, the seat belt most certainly saved my life, it also did massive internal damage breaking 5 ribs and rupturing my diaphragm requiring an emergency Thoracotomy (open chest surgery).
I've also had to have an additional 25 operations on my stomach.
But had I not been wearing a seat belt I'd be little more than a red smudge on a rock wall with a dead Kangaroo for company. 🇦🇺
Being hit by a semi doing 50 on the highway while I was stopped I can say it's was mostly crumple zones and air bags that had me hobble away with minor injuries. However I do think the seat-belt helped and yea, every advantage you can have is a good one.
I'm also one that went from 0% to 100% usage the day they became law.
Who the hell would stop on the highway?
@@cerdickjohn2385 you heard of traffic?
It's always a combination of factors. Without a belt, at high enough speed, you can still get hammered, even with an airbag. And there will always be situations where crumple zones just aren't gonna cut it. Especially when dealing with side impacts, where curtain and seat airbags are a massive lifesaver.
@@cerdickjohn2385 ...who the hell would drive on the highway fully expecting never to find an obstacle?
I guess it was a rear impact? If so you probably owe a lot to the head rest. They are the single most important innovation when it comes to rear impacts, and they saved a lot of people from neck injuries. And yes, the seat belt does little when it comes to rear impacts. The seat assembly including head rest is what keeps you in place.
My first car was a 67 Buick Skylark back in 1998 when I was 15 (had a hardship license) that only had lap belts. I currently have a 70 Buick Skylark, it has lap belts and separate shoulder to waist belts that hang from the roof above the doors (car doesn't really have a B pillar), and has a little tension clip that you fold the belt buckle back and slide it into to hold it when not in use.
As a teenager in the mid 70s I had my grandfather's 1970 Buick Electra to drive and I was that rare kid that wore both the lap and separate shoulder belts when I drove. Usually I was the only one in the car with the belts buckled- all my friends thought I was nuts for buckling up. One night a drunk driver in a Chevrolet suburban crossed the center line and hit me head on. Because of the size and quality of the Electra along with the fact that I was wearing both belts I walked away with only minor cuts, scratches and bruises from the belts which was far better than the unbelted drunk driver. Those older separate lap and shoulder belts when worn were pretty effective, granted they were not as comfortable as modern 3 point belts but definitely better than not wearing them. Sadly most people that did wear a belt back then only wore just the lap belt. It was the combination of both the lap and shoulder belts that offered the best protection in a crash.
We need more videos like this one!
Great explanatory vid. Thanks much.
The first car to break 100 km/h was an electric car in 1899: "La Jamais Contente (English: The Never Contented) was the first road vehicle to go over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph). It was a Belgian electric vehicle". Wiki
The first person he said you noob 😂
Well, technically “la jamais content” isn’t a car, its a vehicle…😂 but yeah oldfield wasn’t the first one to drive a car over 100kmh, he was the first to do so on an oval track😅
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jamais_Contente
I always wanted to know why there were folds in my seatbelt held together by sewn threads. Now I know. Very interesting.
My truck currently has only lap belts, but I'm planning on adding modern 3 point belts as part of the modification/upgrade plan. I've already ditched the solid spear steering column in favor of a collapsible one, too.
Thank you so much for this insane video!
ᴵ’ᵐ ᵍˡᵃᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵉⁿᵗ. ᵂʰᵃᵗ’ˢᴬᵖᵖ
ʰᵉˡᵖˡⁱⁿᵉ ⁱˢ ˢʰᵒʷⁿ
ᴮᵉˡᵒʷ👇 ᴵ’ˡˡ ⁱⁿᵗʳᵒᵈᵘᶜᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ᵗᵒ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵗʰⁱⁿᵍ ⁿᵉʷ
➕ᴼⁿᵉ ˢᵉᵛᵉⁿ ᶻᵉʳᵒ ᵗʰʳᵉᵉ ˢⁱˣ ᶠⁱᵛᵉ ᵒⁿᵉ ⁿⁱⁿᵉ ᶠᵒᵘʳ ᶠᵒᵘʳ ⁿⁱⁿᵉ.
Seatbelts 100% have saved my life multiple times in the past!!!
I rolled my car in the middle of a hurricane, ended up about 60m from where I had exited the highway. I literally walked back to the highway with a bump on my head and a small burn (business card sized) from the airbag.
Y'know I would be shocked about the fact that there was "backlash" for seatbelts, something so simple and granted today that saved a documented million lives, were it not for the fact that we just observed something similar with the pandemic and vaccines....
And masks.
did you just compare masks to fucking seatbelts
@@norkshit Lol yeah.
A more accurate analogy would be if 'seatbelts' in this case meant putting a strip of fabric on your waist not connected to anything, then it would be equally effective.
- and the strip of fabric is pure asbestos
It's almost like there is something different between then and now.
There was never "breakthrough cases" with the polio vaccine, do you think that if people were getting the shot and then still getting noodle legs somebody would go: "Hey, are we sure that this is actually working?"
@@norkshit yah
A really informative and eye opener video.
Informative video as always
If you want to be a passenger in my car, wearing your seatbelt is one of the things I require. The other things are no smoking of anything, no drinking of alcohol, and no touching the stereo head unit.
Just last week I was involved in a roll over accident. I can tell you first hand that my seatbelt kept my ass planted in that seat all the way through 👍🏽
God bless you Real Engineering crew. What a blessing you are.
ᴵ’ᵐ ᵍˡᵃᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ˡⁱᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵉⁿᵗ. ᵂʰᵃᵗ’ˢᴬᵖᵖ
ʰᵉˡᵖˡⁱⁿᵉ ⁱˢ ˢʰᵒʷⁿ
ᴮᵉˡᵒʷ👇 ᴵ’ˡˡ ⁱⁿᵗʳᵒᵈᵘᶜᵉ ʸᵒᵘ ᵗᵒ ˢᵒᵐᵉᵗʰⁱⁿᵍ ⁿᵉʷ
➕ᴼⁿᵉ ˢᵉᵛᵉⁿ ᶻᵉʳᵒ ᵗʰʳᵉᵉ ˢⁱˣ ᶠⁱᵛᵉ ᵒⁿᵉ ⁿⁱⁿᵉ ᶠᵒᵘʳ ᶠᵒᵘʳ ⁿⁱⁿᵉ..
I didn't know how interesting the engineering of seatbelts was so thank you for this comprehensive video! I always wear my seatbelt and when driving with passengers, I won't even start the car until all of them are buckled up. Seatbelts save lives!
"Speed doesn't kill. Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly stopping, that's what gets you" Jeremy Clarkson
Meanwhile passing out pilots of jets: 💀
@@holesmak
Even then, it’s still the acceleration (positive or negative doesn’t matter) that’s doing the damage.
I'm a mechanic. I gotta say, one of my favourite things ever is scaring the living hell out of new apprentices by setting off the charge in the seatbelt (if we change one and its intact, you can set them off just clamping them in a vice and using a car battery.) They don't do much like that, but they sound like a shotgun going off. Good times 🤣🤣🤣
we would do this with okd tensioners all the time lol. anything to kill 5 minutes lol!
5 point harnesses are by far the safest and actually dont hurt if you have it adjusted properly. The bottom part of your body most likely will not slide due to the lower straps and really keeps you mounted overall. Nice harnesses with pads are hands down the safest thing to use
This video was Amazing!! It was great to see how they really work! Great topic, Great message! 👍 I've always wondered what a 6 point harness feels like in a road car. Wear your seatbelts guys!
*Ryanair enters the car manufacturering industry*
Ryanair person:OK, so your car will cost £4,000, would you like a seat belt added?
Person buying the car: Yes please
Ryanair person: OK, that will be a seat belt fare, your car will now cost £8,000
Actually, Ryanair has a quite good safety record, with no fatal crashes AFAIK.
@@erilgaz I didn't say anything about safety, it's a joke
I already know exactly how seatbelts work. But your videos are so good and put together well, that it actually makes it so much better.
I grew up in the late 80s and 90s and definitely saw the way attitudes changed about seatbelts. I have some very nice memories of driving 5 days from my home in Ontario (Canada) to the Florida Keys with the family in my Dad's pick-up with a cap on the back. My brother and I rode in the back almost the whole time. There was a small window for us to crawl through to get up front, so we would crawl up there and all 4 of us crammed together on one row would go through the toll booths. We didn't want to get in trouble after all lol.
As for the situation in the back, all we had was a mattress for us to sit on. Definitely no seatbelts. I loathe to think if we were rear ended by an 18 wheeler on the freeway. I don't remember much else from the journey. Nobody in my family wore seatbelts even in the front seat at the time, anyways. It wasn't until around 1992 when my Mum got pulled over for us not wearing our seatbelts that we started wearing them religiously. I was just little so I was absolutely terrified when we got pulled over. I thought my Mum (and possibly me) were going to jail. But he just gave her a warning and we wore our seatbelts religiously after that. Still do.
More modern saftey features being added are also adding another pretentioner to the attachment point on the other side of the belt opposite of the reel, to have more tension against the seats.
On December 9th two girls flipped a blazer in front of my house and the 14 year old girl passenger got ejected and I tried to help but had to watch her die as I stayed with her and prayed,I'm still traumatized by it and will never forget what I seen,I'm a 37 year old man and cried at this scene,if she had just wore a seat belt all would have been ok,please wear your seat belt people cause it really will save your life and the hurt of many others.
I've been in 1 crash in particular that I fully believe my seatbelt saved my life. Always have and always will be a full supporter of seatbelts.
Thank you for spreading the word of Science, Knowledge and Engineering! All the best!
Torsion bars are not only designed to absorb some of the force, but also to break, if the forces get too high, so they don't stop the belt too much. I worked at a company manufacturing them and had to make them to different specifications for testing.
Great video btw
The rule in my car is that we don't go anywhere until everyone is buckled up. I'm always surprised at how many of my friends fight me on this.
But, I though survival of the fittest was the key ingredient to the evolution of a species.
I am one of those whose life was saved by a seatbelt. I was in a rollover accident that most likely would have ejected me into traffic. I came out uninjured. I was skeptical about seatbelts before the accident. I was only wearing it because I didn't want a ticket.
whose
and lucky you
@@NoNameAtAll2 Good catch.
@Yummy Spaghetti Noodles
Mine fit badly as well. They ride up around my neck, and I've gotten seatbelt burn. I am afraid it will break my neck in an accident.
@Yummy Spaghetti Noodles if some safe comfortable material wont hurt you wearing seat beat
@@b_uppy Most have a mechanism to lower the height of belt
5:26 was really brilliant!
Damn, I love Engineering! :D
SAAB & Volvo has Always been the Frontrunners when it comes to Person safety and Tech Development for cars in General.
While Volvo was the first maker to introduce the 3 point safety belt SAAB was the first to have all seats belted with atleast a 2 point belt as standard.
SAAB and Volvo probably has stood for more than 50% of all Important safety engineering of cars between 1950 to 2011
As someone from Malaysia, can confirm that road safety leaves quite a bit to be desired, especially with the popularity of motorcycles in the country. If I remember correctly, rear seatbelts were only legally required to be worn in the late 2000s or early 2010s
The amount of arguments I had with people there in my car. Or getting into taxis where the seatbelts don’t work. Childseats are almost nonexistent too. People think they can hold onto their baby in a crash. 🤦🏻♂️
@@RealEngineering They need to see some very graphic accident videos, some people are like this they have no concept of physics and how vulnerable our bodies are.
I've been in two rollovers and had zero injury because I was wearing my seatbelt. I had a friend that died because she wasn't wearing one and her vehicle rolled at highway speed and she was ejected and killed. It's the dumbest thing to not buckle up!
I absolutely love engineering, and I'm an engineer myself. It was my passion for coding that led me into this field and I am forever grateful for it. Engineering plays a major role in so many different aspects of our lives today, from transportation to construction and healthcare. It gives us the tools to solve problems and make the world a better place. I'm proud to be part of the community that is constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of technology to create incredible solutions. It truly is an amazing field to be in.
It's really wild, I'm not even 30 yet, but I grew up riding around town in the bed of my grandparents pickup truck, let alone being in a seat with a belt. They change I've seen towards seatbelts over the past 10-20 years is honestly kinda incredible looking back. So many people who said they would never do it hardly think about it anymore as they buckle up. Definitely a good change, super thankful seatbelts exist!
I grew up in the 80s and I grew up driving around, standing up in the backseat. We didn't wear seat belts in our family until it became law. Its amazing how many people really fought hard against wearing seatbelts when legislation was introduced. I remember hearing people talk about how it was better to be thrown clear of the accident and make other insane claims about how seatbelts made accidents more dangerous.
Of course seat belts save lives. I wear mine. But there should be no law requiring people to wear them. This is just a way for governments to shake us down. Persuade people, don't force them. It works better. But we get to say how much risk we take with our own lives. Gonna outlaw base-jumping and wing-suits? That's just not the proper role of government.
Wingsuit is not a vehicle bruh
@stez cool story sis.
@@mann_idonotreadreplies No, but it is a risky activity that people have a right to engage in. I could see this being outlawed. The point is, that governments should never restrict our right to engage in risky behavior that mostly just harms ourselves. Another example of this is the drug war. Recreational drugs hurt people. But making them illegal is wrong, and just makes things worse. My argument is that requiring seatbelts by law is wrong, and just makes things worse.
@@freesk8 The seatbelt isn't just there to protect you, if you're being thrown out your windshield at 80 mph you might hit someone else
Yep i agree on malaysian is so hard to wear the seatbelt. We even had extra item to bypass the alarm triggered by not locking the seatbelt.
Looking at my '77 Toyota and not finding the central processor you mentioned, but I do see a few vacuum lines
Seatbelt is a masterpiece of engineering and it can stop a dangerous accident from happening! But sadly most of the people are not wearing a seatbelt while driving!
I went out to my car and tried to count how many pyrotechnic charges, airbags/seatbelt pre-tensioners, I'm surrounded by while driving.
I gave up after about a dozen, too many and too hard to identify each one. They're everywhere.
I found SRS-Control boxes bolted to the underside of seats because the seats have airbags. Found some money too. (2014 Volvo)
Can't even drive without buckling up due to the beeping eventually reaching a volume similar to that of a smoke alarm.
Just no better way to quickly release huge amounts of energy.
Many EVs come with pyro fuses on top of things, to blow apart the high voltage lines in case something goes wrong.
@@Killerpixel11 Are you just talking about HRC fuses? Because all EV's use "Low Voltage".
Technically "High Voltage" is >1000 V (AC rms) or >1600 V (DC) and there are no EV's using "High Voltage".
I don't work on cars but if you know of an example where what you describe is utilised in a production car/truck, please do let me know as I'd love to read up on it. Cheers.
@@PushyPawn In the context of EVs, the "high voltage" refers to the drivetrain (battery, motors, etc.), as opposed to the typical 12V system. Depending on the car that's currently something between 400 V and 800 V DC. Good to now the actual definition is a different one, didn't know that.
And no, I mean actual pyro fuses. Tesla is using them for certain. Friend of mine had his pop, unfortunately. Protects the battery and the motors from faults during charging.
I believe Mercedes even had them on the 12V in certain models, for quite a while.
We're also seeing more and more GA aircraft now with airbags as an integral component of the seat belt itself.
i never knew seatbelts were so complicated! thank you for explaining how they work and how they can save lives! Just know, you, yes you, the creator, you are saving lives by spreading information! 👍
It's hard to fathom just how quickly making it a law to actually wear them has changed things. When I was young it was totally legal to drive around with your kids standing in the car and I remember several trips where a bunch of us were crowded into the back of someone's pickup truck and sloshed around haphazardly inside it on the way to a campsite...after it became law. In high school that had faded with almost everyone I knew wearing seatbelts and the few that didn't were rare enough that I assumed they just forgot. My first full-time job after college moved to an even smaller town and to my shock I was scoffed at by my boss and everyone else in the office for wearing my seatbelt in her car when we carpooled to lunch. By the time it was my turn to drive, they begrudgingly wore them because, as I pointed out, I'm the one who gets the ticket if they don't (none of them even bothered with the tinfoil hat things anti-seatbelters claim, they knew full well they were putting comfort over safety). I've since moved to an even smaller town (42k, 12k and 4k currently - at this rate I'll retire in my own town population 1) and everyone I know wears a seatbelt and even uses seatbelts as an example of something "obvious" as if none of them avoided seatbelts just 30 years ago.
Seatbelts have saved my friends, and not wearing them has cost the lives of my father's friends.
I really didn't want to see vaccines mandated when I was young because there have been some problems, but at this point we're going to have to put on our big society pants and mandate them like we mandated wearing seatbelts. Within a generation the idiots who think their tinfoil hats will protect them better than a vaccine will have died out. And I say that as one of the 0.0000000000000000000000000001% who had a reaction to the Pfizer vaccine. (I'm sick of being people's excuse.)
Its interesting as someone who was born in 1999 how i have always felt more comfortable wearing a seatbelt in a moving car than not. Now the only times i don't were one is when I'm only going 5mph reshuffling cars in the driveway.
Although my favorite example for why you should basically always wear a seatbelt is this: "Humans can run about 15mph, so put your hands behind your back and sprint full force into a brick wall. If you answered no then wear your seatbelt at that speed."
I wish my state would make it a law so my dad would actually wear his damn seatbelt
You're insane. Please worry about yourself.
I have a burn scar from the pretentioner triggering during a crash, but i prefewr having the scar to being dead.
Great work Thank you
hey can you do a video explaining military grade radar. from the Doppler effect to radar targeting.
I put on my seat belt without even thinking about it it’s just muscle memory when I get in a car.
I will remember the explosives in the seat belt for survival purposes. Could make a little fire or something
There are also explosives in airbags as well. the chambers are sealed meaning the likelyhood of fire from the explosive material is low like a gun misfiring, it does make a fireball but it's too fast to spread to other flammable objects, and too hot. My main concern when it comes to fire hazards in cars would be fuel lines breaking and catching fire, which is also unlikely, but has happened before.
@@d1g1ta1flux7 All of them are also designed to not produce flame ( unless you have Tataka defective ones) just hot nitrogen gas, so they do not actually get hot enough to light fires. The light bulbs are better for starting fires, unless they are all LED.
@@SeanBZA yah didn't think about that. I was thinking about the circumstance of it not being fully sealed and shooting out the side and igniting with the air, but even then the chance of ignition is close to none due to the pressure. Assuming it made with a more volatile gas
My 2002 truck does not have the explosive devices in the seat belt retractors, but it does have a cigarette lighter in the dash, which is capable of starting fire a lot more readily than clever application of a seat belt device or incandescent light bulb. It has an ashtray too. Quaint items from yesteryear. I use the ashtray to store small items BTW, no smoking for me.
@@onemoremisfit yah to say that a car is a completely safe thing would a very obvious lie.
I have been saved by a seatbelt from what would have quite a smash on the head (that I very likely would have survived but it would have hurt like hell) even though the car I was in wasn't even moving at the time. I got rear-ended when stopping at a pedestrian crossing.
I had to send this to my family because they refuse to. Can you also do a video on the f-22 raptor? Ever since I kid I was i love with it and your videos are amazing and would love to hear you talk about it.
Answered many questions I didn't know I had
Video I didn't know I need, but totally deserve.
the seatbelts in my car work with a steal ball that when not in the 0 position looks the mechanism.. i had once dust in there and it was the whole time blocked... that way i learnd how it works :D
Same here about being the on tail end of backlash against seatbelts in the 1990s. Such an odd time in retrospect.
Seat belts also help you keep control of the vehicle. If you take a corner too quickly or are struck from the side, they keep you behind the wheel so you can steer.
If you are relying on your seat belt to hold you in your seat you are driving way to quickly for either the road conditions or the age of your vehicle. The only situation that might occur realistically is on a race track in which case you typically have racing bucket seats (which do more for holding you then a seat belt) and a 5 point harness.
@@tasdasd3856 yes, but this is specifically for non standard conditions like fucking up or getting into a crash situation where the car gets flung towards potential life-ending circumstances.