Tags: Technologies & Safety Ford safety technoologies Ford Detroit Auto Show NAIAS 2006 2006 North American International Auto Show
"Ford is raising the bar on second-row occupant protection by expanding and adding new technologies to vehicles," says Priya Prasad, Ford's safety technical fellow. "These concepts provide us with the platform to explore the possibilities of these technologies."
Inflatable Safety Belts
Air bag technology traditionally has been focused on the front of the vehicle, where occupants are at greatest risk for injury during a front impact.
Ford, however, is also paying attention to what happens in the backseat during an accident. Using advances in air bag inflation and construction, Ford engineers have developed a small, tubular-shaped inflatable bag that can deploy inside a shoulder belt in the event of a crash. This patent-pending inflatable safety belt system has potential to cover the entire bodily area where the belt makes contact with the torso. The expected result is a further reduction in head and neck injury risk.
The inflatable safety belt technology is unique in many ways:
The inflated portion of the safety belt across the shoulder and upper chest may be able to limit motion of the head in a crash, with the potential to reduce head and neck injuries.
Inflating the area alongside the torso belt may provide many of the same benefits as pretensioner devices – tightening the shoulder and lap belts before crash forces are transmitted, positioning the person in relation to other safety devices in the vehicle.
The broader contact area of the inflatable safety belt has the potential to spread impact forces across the chest, further reducing the changes of injury.
This technology offers promise along many fronts and goes a long way in offering advanced second row occupant safety," says Prasad.
BeltMinder for Second-Row Occupants
Ford's concepts will also contain an advanced version of its innovative BeltMinder™ system – one that extends into the backseat.
The company's patented BeltMinder™ technology goes farther than the federally required safety belt reminder chiming system. In Ford vehicles, the driver or front passenger who remains unbuckled is regularly reminded to buckle up.
The system chimes and flashes a warning lamp for six seconds every 30 seconds for five minutes, or until the driver buckles up, whichever comes first. The second-row BeltMinder™ technology will now be able to alert the driver when second row passengers have not buckled their safety belts.
BeltMinder works. Research conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that safety belt use was five percentage points higher in vehicles with BeltMinder. And, government research shows that more than 3,000 lives could be saved and thousands of injuries could be prevented annually if the nationwide safety belt use rate climbed to 90 percent. According to recent data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, today's safety belt use is 82 percent.
"Our BeltMinder technology helps remind customers to buckle up," says Prasad. "It's a simple reminder that makes a big difference in saving lives. It only makes sense for us to look at ways of expanding this technology to cover additional seating positions in a vehicle"
