Seat Belts & Safety

Dodger Catcher Roy Campanella was driving at only 30 m.p.h. one winter evening in 1958, when his car skidded into a utility pole. Despite the moderate speed, Campy broke his bull neck in the crackup; he was paralyzed for life, from the chest down. Just one year later, Campy was driven into another accident. This time the car was going 40; the driver and two other passengers wound up in a hospital. But Campy was unhurt. Having learned the hard way that most traffic accidents happen at low speeds and close to home, the ex-ballplayer was wearing a seat belt--a safety device that his friends could not be bothered with.

Last week safety experts figured that some 3,300,000 (more than 5%) of the nation's 64 million passenger cars are already fitted with safety belts, at least for the front seats. This is a threefold increase over last year, and the number is expected to double again by year's end. Main reason: five states (Mississippi, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wisconsin) have passed laws requiring all new cars to be equipped with seat belts in the near future.

In Fire or Flood. The A.M.A., insurance companies, the National Safety Council and state highway authorities have been advocating the use of seat belts for years, but they have usually larded their arguments with such vague and unprovable estimates as "universal use of seat belts would save 5,000 lives a year." Hospital emergency rooms and surgeons who specialize in trauma (injury) cases rarely check on whether accident victims were wearing seat belts.

Now the California Highway Patrol has made detailed studies of 699 accidents in which the driver was wearing a seat belt, and compared the results with crashes involving unbelted drivers. Seat belts, the patrolmen concluded, prevented injury in 42% of the accidents, reduced the severity of injuries in 16%, and prevented death in almost 5%.

For motorists who have been worried that the belt itself might cause injury, there was reassurance from both California and a Cornell University study: in only a fraction of 1% of accidents did belts cause injury, and even when they did, there was always the possibility that without them the injuries would have been worse. As for the hazard of being trapped by a belt in a burning or submerged car, the National Safety Council says: "The belt greatly improves your chances of survival. It helps to keep you conscious, so you can get clear of the car." Free to Squirm. Doctors, who are among the first to see the gory results of road accidents, have been leaders in the drive for belt safety. Says the A.M.A.'s past president, Leonard W. Larson: "About one of every five physicians has seat belts in his car. Besides being a safety measure, they reduce the strain on the back, and reduce general body fatigue." More than 70 different makes of front-seat belts have been approved by various state authorities; yet despite the wide choice it is still difficult to find a belt fit for children up to the age of six. What the kids really need is a sturdy harness that can be anchored to the floor but will leave the wearer free to squirm and move in any direction except forward.

Some manufacturers are already talking of a harness for adults too--an arrangement of shoulder straps similar to those worn by aircraft pilots. Even with only a safety belt, the human body can briefly withstand a force equivalent to 60 times that of gravity.

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