Automobile Safety Belt Research Articles

The application of a piezo-resistive cardiorespiratory sensor system in an automobile safety belt.

Respiratory and heart failure are conditions that can occur with little warning and may also be difficult to predict. Therefore continuous monitoring of these bio-signals is advantageous for ensuring human health. The car safety belt is mainly designed to secure the occupants of the vehicle in the event of an accident. In the current research a prototype safety belt is developed, which is used to acquire respiratory and heart signals, under laboratory conditions. The current safety belt is constructed using a copper ink based nonwoven material, which works based on the piezo-resistive effect due to the pressure exerted on the sensor as a result of expansion of the thorax/abdomen area of the body for respiration and due to the principle of ballistocardiography (BCG) in heart signal sensing. In this research, the development of a theoretical model to qualitatively describe the piezo-resistive material is also presented in order to predict the relative change in the resistance of the piezo-resistive material due to the pressure applied.

Optimisation of the bending process of High Strength Low Alloy sheet metal: numerical and experimental approach

Anchorage parts for automobile safety belts and other safety parts must resist shock loadings without breaking. They are typically made from High Strength Low Alloy sheet metal and fabricated by blanking and bending operations. The study of their behaviour during fabrication and their resulting mechanical properties has been conducted experimentally and numerically. The experimental results were used to validate the numerical simulation. The resulting material damage is taken into account by a user subroutine in the Abaqus Standard Finite Element code. Damage is one of the objective functions intervening in the forming process of safety parts as well as in the prediction of unbending and shock loads. This study is based on the use of “the design of experiments technique” and the approximated representation by response surfaces. For unbending operations representative of dynamic shock loading conditions, the objective functions represent the maximum unbending load and maximum damage. The parameters that represent the die radius Rd and the sheet/die clearance C are optimised in order to obtain the most resistant safety part possible.

Finite element analysis on the effect of die clearance on shear planes in fine blanking

Finite element analysis was performed to investigate the effect of the die clearance on shear planes in the fine blanking of a part of an automobile safety belt. For the analysis, AISI1045 was selected as the material, which was used in manufacturing part of an automobile safety belt, and Cockcroft–Latham fracture criterion was applied. The effect of die clearance on die-roll width, die-roll depth, burnish zone, and fracture zone has been investigated in a finite element analysis by a rigid–plastic FEM code, DEFORM-2D. From the analysis, it was found that die-roll width and depth of the shear plane increase with increasing die clearance. The burnish zone decreases with increasing die clearance, but the variation of the fracture zone is the opposite that of the burnish zone, because the increase in die clearance requires less fracture energy. Theoretical predictions were compared with experimental results. There was significant agreement between theory and experiment.

Cultural Differences in Impact of Governmental Legislation

Cultural differences in automobile safety belt use were investigated prior to and following the initiation of mandatory safety belt legislation in two independent studies, one in Massachusetts (United States) and the second in Hiroshima (Japan). Comparison of the pattern of findings in these studies indicated cultural differences over time. In both sociocultural contexts, there was an increase in drivers' use of safety belts on the highway and in the city from the test occasion prior to passage of the law to the test occasion immediately following legislation. However, whereas the usage rates began to level off and remained constant or increased further in Hiroshima, they continued to decrease steadily in Massachusetts. Further, a significant number of the Massachusetts participants voiced their concern that mandatory safety belt legislation was an invasion of privacy/infringement on human rights, which ultimately resulted in repeal of the legislation and further decrease in safety belt use. No parallel phenomenon was manifest among the Japanese.

Effects of a mandatory safety belt law on hospital admissions

Although the effectiveness of automobile safety belts in reducing risk of serious injury in traffic crashes is well documented, safety belt use in many U.S. jurisdictions remains low. Michigan's mandatory safety belt law for front-seat occupants, implemented in July 1985, is one of 34 similar laws in the United States intended to increase belt use and reduce crash-related injuries. Using time-series intervention analyses of data from 14 hospitals throughout the state, we found a 19% reduction in the rate of admitted patients for all automobile occupant injuries and a 20% reduction in the rate of admitted patients with extremity injuries following implementation of the safety belt law. The utility of hospital data for the evaluation of interventions like the safety belt law reinforce the importance of consistently recording E-codes for all injury patients.

Promoting automobile safety belt use by young children

A program using behavioral practice, assertiveness training, and social and contrived reinforcers was developed to establish and maintain automobile safety belt use by young children. Sixteen children (ages 4.8 to 7 years) who never used their safety belts during a 5-day preexperimental observation period were randomly assigned to two groups of eight each. A multiple baseline design across groups was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program. During the 8-day baseline period for Group 1, no children used their safety belts when unobtrusively observed while being driven from school. During the 26-day intervention period, the children were buckled up on 96% of the observations. Follow-up probes conducted 2-3 months after program discontinuance found safety belt use to range from 86% to 100%. For Group 2, the 14-day baseline safety belt use averaged 6% and increased to a mean of 81% during the 20-day training and maintenance program. Follow-up probes 2-3 months later found safety belt use to occur during 75% to 96% of the observations. Parent questionnaires indicated the generalizability and social validity of the program.

Initial effects of the New York State auto safety belt law.

New York State began enforcing a mandatory automobile safety belt use law on January 1, 1985. We present a preliminary analysis of its effect on fatalities and injuries. Applying a Poisson statistical model to pre- and post-law belt usage rates together with counts of fatalities and injuries in 12 metropolitan areas, we estimate the first six months' application of the law averted 220 fatal, 1,500 severe, 4,600 moderate, and 2,600 light injuries across the state. The Poisson approach gives estimates of injuries averted considerably greater than simple year to year comparisons, indicating that media announcements have understated the efficacy of requiring safety belt usage.

Stressing the knee joint for arthrography.

A restraining device for arthrography of the knee, made from an automobile safety belt, is described. Contrary to usual practice, the authors place the strap below the knee joint. There is less tendency for the knee to flex when compared with placement above the knee, resulting in improved demonstration ot the meniscus.

Safety harness during pregnancy : Keller, W. K. and others (1972), ‘Automobile safety belts during pregnancy’, J. Am. med. Ass., 221, 20

Safety harness during pregnancy : Keller, W. K. and others (1972), ‘Automobile safety belts during pregnancy’, J. Am. med. Ass., 221, 20

Automobile Safety Belts During Pregnancy

Automobile Safety Belts During Pregnancy

Intra-abdominal Injuries Caused by Automobile Seat Belts

Automobile safety belts rarely cause intra-abdominal injury, especially if properly worn. Only 23 cases have been previously reported in the literature. When such injury does occur, evidence of it may not be apparent when the patient is first seen. The physician must be alert to this possibility. Physical findings, blood studies, paracentesis, and diagnostic roentgenograms may lead to the diagnosis or indicate the necessity for an exploratory laparotomy.

MANEUVER FOR CERVICAL MYELOGRAPHY.

THE FOLLOWING maneuver is of use to reduce patient discomfort during myelography for obstruction of the cervical spinal canal. The patient is flexed over the head end of the horizontal fluoroscopic table on a soft pad (Fig. 1). A belt or compression band secures the hips to the table top. An ordinary automobile safety belt previously installed at the end of the table is tightened behind the knees, or an assistant may hold the patient's legs against the end of the table. The table is then tilted steeply upward, even to a vertical position for fluoroscopy and filming. The belts should be relaxed before a return to horizontal position. Fluoroscopy is usually limited to the cervical region with this method. It may not be possible on some x-ray machines because of limited excursion of the fluoroscopic screen. This maneuver incidentally facilitates lateral radiography as no metal obstructs the x-ray beam. Summary A new maneuver which reduces patient discomfort in myelography of the cervical region is described.

Dynamic Tests of Restraining Devices for Automobile Passengers

M OST SEAT BELT standards in the United States specify a static test method-a slow application of test load. In actual accidents, however, the belts are subjected to very rapidly applied loads. Under such dynamic conditions belts may react differently than when the load is applied slowly, as indicated by Finch and Palmer in 1956 (1). The application of dynamic test methods to automobile safety belts is not a new idea. Indeed, the type of seat belt used in American cars today was developed with the benefit of inforrnation generated by dynamic tests of restraining devices for aviation by Stapp (2, 3) and for automnobiles by Severy and associates (4). Severy and associates performed their studies by controlled collisions of actual automobiles, with t;he vehicles, the passengers (usually dummies), and the seat belts instrumented to determine the magnitudes and durations of the forces produced in actual accidents. Similar controlled collision studies, using automobiles, have been done by research engineers of automobile companies (5). In addition to these research activities, laboratory dynamic tests have been used for several years for certifying sea.t belts for public sale by the California Highway Patrol and by the Swedish Government. Another laboratory dynamic test device has been used for some years in automobile safety research at the University of Minnesota (6). During 1962 an increased interest in dynamic tests of sea,t belts developeid in both the United States and abroad. The British Standards, Institution, the R,AI-TNO in The Netherlands, and the Bat,telle Institute in Frankfurt, have built equipment for such tests, and the Inte.rnational Organization for Standardization is preparing a standard dynamic t,est method for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. In addition, several automobile and seat belt manufacturers in the United States and Europe have built dynamic tes,t equipment during the pa,st year. But dynamic t,esting is still not an accepted method in official or semiofficia.l standards (7, 8) in the United States, except in California.

Splenic rupture due to improper placement of automobile safety belt.

WIDESPREAD USE of seat belts has resulted in a pronounced reduction of major and fatal injuries from automobile crashes.1-5However, if improperly positioned, seat belts may cause severe injury. In the case here presented, the belt was positioned so that the impact of the collision, plus the restraining action of the belt when the patient's body was thrown forward, caused sudden, severe compression of the upper abdominal viscera, with subsequent rib fractures and splenic rupture. This is believed to be the first reported case of splenic rupture caused by a lap-type automobile seat belt. Report of a Case A short, stocky 62-yr-old woman was a passenger in the front seat of an automobile which struck another automobile broadside at 35 mph. The driver, wearing no seat belt, was uninjured. When brought to the Ochsner Foundation Hospital Emergency Room, the patient complained of discomfort in the abdomen and left flank