A nonrandom sample of 120 disproportionately short, tall, and overweight drivers compared the comfort and convenience of the automatic safety belt systems used in seventeen automobiles. Nine vehicles had motorized shoulder belts with manual lap belts; five had non-motorized shoulder and lap belts; and three had non-motorized shoulder belts only. The study was designed to identify problems of comfort and convenience in order to improve an already acceptable technological advance. The study compared comfort and convenience features among different automatic belt types and specific vehicle installations. The study did not evaluate comfort and convenience against an absolute standard or compare comfort and convenience with features of manual systems. The motorized system and the two-point non-motorized system had the fewest or least severe problems. Some drivers found comfort and convenience problems with each belt system tested. Women, short drivers, and overweight drivers all had more problems than drivers who were male, or average height or tall, and not overweight.
Comparison of the Comfort and Convenience of Automatic Safety Belt Systems among Selected 1988-1989 Model Year Automobiles
1989
64 pages
Report
No indication
English
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