Issues in Seatbelt Inertial Release

Initial claims that seatbelt buckles might inertially unlatch in an automobile collision were based upon the observation that sharply striking the backside of a side-release buckle with some object could cause the buckle to unlatch. More recently, similar examinations have formed the basis of the hypothesis that end-release buckles might be susceptible to inertial release under certain crash conditions. This paper discusses some examples of how test data have been misinterpreted to erroneously support these hypotheses.