Orange County Computer Lawyer Blog

Ford’s New Inflatable Seat Belts Work Best for Seniors, Children

Inflatable Seatbelt

Ford Motor Company is all set to roll out its new inflatable seatbelts – a Ford auto safety innovation – on the 2011 Explorers.

According to reviewers who managed to test the seatbelts, the undeployed seatbelt is padded and much softer than regular seatbelts. This should make it more appealing to those who refuse to wear seatbelts, like children. The inflatable seatbelts are available for back seat passengers. Typically, these passengers tend to consist of children and senior adults.

During impact, the seatbelts inflate from side to side, as they are fed with cold compressed gas from a cylinder underneath the seat. This allows the impact to be spread across five times the area that a seatbelt normally would. This reduces the strain that is likely with a normal seatbelt during impact. The seatbelts are configured to deploy at a low impact, and much more slowly than front seat airbags which are typically deployed suddenly, with great force and only at high-impact. This will help protect the softer bones of both senior adults and children, preventing injuries and fractures.

These features are currently optional on the 2011 Explorers, and are available for between $200 and $300 extra. Ford is likely to introduce the inflatable seatbelts on other models too, most likely the Taurus.

It’s always exciting when auto companies create technological innovations to keep occupants safe during a crash. It’s far too soon to tell how much inflatable seatbelts will help protect back seat occupants during a crash, but any feature that aims to improve on the safety of airbags and seatbelts is always welcome. The fact that these undeployed seatbelts are more comfortable than normal seatbelts will make them more attractive to back seat passengers, who typically have some of the lowest rates of seatbelt use. Getting occupants of the backseat to buckle up has been a major concern for auto safety advocates and Las Vegas personal injury lawyers, and this feature could be a push in the right direction.