Since July 1, 1973, the wearing of seat belts by front seat occupants is compulsory in France. This requirement is respected by 60 to 90% of motorists, depending on the type of road. If seat belts were not worn, a 55% increase in fatalities for front seat occupants would be observed. On the other hand, if seat belts were worn by occupants in all seats 100% of the time, fatalities would be reduced by another 30%.
Improvements of the seat belt over the past ten years have had a significant influence in the following areas:
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Incentives for wearing the belts
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Limitation of belt stretch and spool-out
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Reduction of the number of submarining cases.
In this paper, emphasis is put on the levels of performance which no other sytem has been able to attain, or even equal, and which result in practically guaranteeing protection against the risk of ejection, especially in a side impact or rollover.
It is also shown how in-depth accident investigations reveal that certain arguments against wearing seat belts have no objective basis.