Seat Belt Defects
Failure to wear a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other traffic safety behavior. Unfortunately, millions of vehicle occupants per year put their lives at risk by either not wearing a seat belt or not wearing one properly. More than 60% of people killed in car accidents are not wearing seat belts.
As with any safety system, seat belt performance is dependent on proper use, design and fit. If it is not positioned correctly on the occupant’s body, or if it is defective in any way, it can fail to provide adequate safety in the event of a collision or rapid deceleration. With the introduction of mandatory usage laws, many more Americans are now wearing seat belts compared to prior decades. As a consequence of more frequent usage, design flaws in seat belts have become apparent.
The most common of these defects include the following:
• Shoulder Belt Fails to Lock
• Inertial Unlatching
• Inadvertent or Unintentional Unlatching
• Excessive Belt Slack
• False Latching
• Defective Automatic Door Mounts
In the following video, attorney John Uustal discusses seat belt defects.