INJURIES CAUSED BY THE SAFETY BELTS OF VEHICLES

Authors: Tatiana IOV, Simona Irina DAMIAN, Sofia Mihaela DAVID, Mihaela Cătălina VICOL, Anton KNIELING, Diana BULGARU-ILIESCU

Abstract:

Car safety systems involved in car occupant injuries are seat belts, airbags and the lack or incorrect use of head restraints. The seat belt is a “harness” designed to keep the driver or any other passenger in the seat in the event of an impact. The safety belt, the first safety system on the car market has, since its inception, significantly reduced mortality and morbidity (by 45-50%, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), while also reducing the severity of injuries caused by the impact of a car, but at the same time of those causing a series of traumas united under the name of “Seat Belt Syndrome”
[1,2]. Seat belt increases protection by: 42% for the driver, 39% for the right occupant, 19% for the rear occupant, 17% for the right rear occupant. In the year 2002, in the United States, NHTSA estimated 2.9 million passengers having suffered various injuries from the use of the seat belt, out of which 43,000 died. In 20% of the rolling road accidents, the safety belt was the most important factor involved in producing injuries to the occupants of the car.

Keywords:
  • seat belt
  • seat belt syndrome
  • trauma