The Safest Place in a Car Crash Isn’t the Back Seat Anymore | Hacker News Reader

The Safest Place in a Car Crash Isn’t the Back Seat Anymore

nytimes.com

34 pointspseudolus12 comments

This made me curious about the Model 3 I have. The owners manual states that the rear seats do have pretensioners, although they are only for the shoulder while the front seats have them for the lap belt as well. It doesn't say anything about load limiters though.

Tangent to the article: I have often wondered if it would be advantageous to start offering an optional 2nd sash belt to better secure the passenger to lateral movement, and spread the belt load across more area.

Volvo SCC: https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressrele...

This is from 2001, do Volvo cars offer this type of seatbelts now?

They never have, it's a concept car.

I wonder why Volvo never went further with this? I can't imagine the cost would be prohibitive to add these to a high end vehicle like Volvo produces, and it would fit perfectly with there safety first image.

That's a great idea, but we shouldn't forget about securing the head too. I think about that frequently since the day a friend was killed while riding on the back seat of the car. The crash was a low force T-bone collision, but he had an internal decapitation because of lateral head movement.

That is rather horrific. I am sorry to hear that happened.

I like the idea of some sort of head restraint. The challenge with a head restraint would be making something not restrictive, and silly looking, otherwise people would just not use it.

I think you just invented the 5-point racing harness.

I think that you can recognise that there would be key differences though. It would be less conspicuous, easier to put on, and not an all or nothing proposition.

Why not go all the way and glue/stitch a vest to the seat for the driver to slip in? ;-)

I know you're just being humourous, but your joke highlights a challenge with people and safety equipment. People resist using safety stuff for a variety of reasons. E.g. not looking cool, convenience, anti-authoritarism etc.

We could make cars significantly more "death-proof" with rollcages, harnesses, helmets, speed-limitors etc. But we don't, and for many good reasons.

My (somewhat drawnout) point is that design of these features matters not just from a safety result pov.

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