History of Seat Belts in the United States

History of Seat Belts in the United States

Seat belts play a key role in keeping drivers and passengers safe while on the road. However, seat belts weren’t even available in most vehicles until the mid or late 1950s. Volvo was the first company to include seat belt systems in their vehicles in 1955, and they even performed numerous crash tests to demonstrate the importance of seat belts.

Despite these findings, many American automakers only wanted to include seat belts as optional equipment, as only a few customers would order seat belts to be included in their cars. Most auto repair services didn’t specialize in installing seat belts during this time period. It wasn’t until the mid-1960s that seat belts became standard in American vehicles.

New Regulations for Seat Belts

An ever-growing number of casualties on highways forced Congress to make history in 1963 by implementing federal standards for including seat belts in vehicles. The U.S Commerce Department also proposed and implemented numerous regulations in 1964 to govern the use of seat belts in vehicles. These regulations required manufacturers to follow specific restraint system requirements.

Congress approved the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966, which created the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), which specifies the minimum requirements for manufacturing seat belt buckles and seat belts. The passage of this legislation required automakers in the United States to make seat belts mandatory.

Creation of the Shoulder Belt System

Regulatory changes also required vehicle manufacturers to include lap and shoulder belt systems for additional safety in the late 1960s. The shoulder belt system helps to distribute the force of the belt system throughout the body instead of focusing primarily along the pelvis, which often causes abdominal injuries with only a lap belt.

The Federal Government began to require automakers to include a shoulder belt system in the late 1970s to help further improve safety. However, one of the biggest disadvantages of this system is that it was prone to significant issues due to its mechanics. Most people didn’t even use the manually attached belt, which often resulted in even more serious injuries.

Due to these findings, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration implemented regulations to require placards to be included on the shoulder harness system to warn people that they aren’t to be used without also using the lap belt. Automakers in the United States were also allowed to stop including automatic shoulder restraints, due to these safety issues.

Airbags

Research involving crash tests in the mid-1980s showed the importance of including airbags for additional safety. The use of airbags eventually became mandatory in the early 1990s. However, airbags can create their own risks for frail adults or small children due to the force of sudden inflation. Despite these concerns, airbags have played a key role in reducing the number of severe and fatal injuries in accidents. These findings were especially noticeable in providing much-needed protection for high-speed wrecks on highways.

Evolution of the Seat Belt Buckle

The main objective of the seat belt buckle is to secure both ends of the seat belt to provide the best protection during an accident. These belt buckles are designed to fasten securely around the occupant for the best protection. General Motors designed a seat belt buckle in 1965 that was the first top-release buckle that was used on vehicles in the United States. This innovative design also made it possible for an occupant to easily disengage the tongue and buckle by pressing a button.

One of the advantages of this design was its simplicity, and it was easy to manufacture. The seat belt buckle was also durable due to it having fewer moving parts. This design began to be widely popular with all automakers in the United States, and the government eventually required manufacturers to include this design in cars by 1968.

Eventually, automakers in the United States developed a tongue eject feature with a release push button at the end of the buckle in the early 1980s. Other companies began to manufacture end-release buckles for GM and Ford during the late 1980s. Nowadays, most modern vehicles in the United States include end-release buckles, as the previous styles continue to beused less.

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