<VV> Seats

[William Hubbell]

Except SBL don’t prevent rear seat passengers from crashing forward into front seat passengers.  

In the NHTSA article previously cited by Bryan, they found most of the seat back latches broke above a certain speed:

“The effectiveness analysis addresses two questions. Do seat back locks prevent the loading of the seatback on the front seat occupants and retain back seat passengers within the rear half of the passenger compartment? Do seat back locks reduce deaths and injuries? The answer to the first question is fundamentally, "No." Specifically, when there are unrestrained back seat passengers, seat back locks or other seating system components were torn loose in every sled test at 26.5 mph and in a large percentage of frontal crashes of moderate severity.

At lower speeds, even when seating components were not torn loose, seatbacks were deflected forward to the point where they could not be relied on to keep back seat passengers In the rear half of the passenger compartment and away from front seat occupants. Seat back locks did perform better when the back seat was unoccupied: all seats remained Intact in the sled tests, while 12 percent of seats tore loose at 20-25 mph and 26 percent at 25-30 mph in the accident file. Nevertheless, when the back seat is unoccupied, the sled tests showed that, even without seat back locks, the seatback only makes a minimal contribution to Impact forces on front seat occupants.”

And again, their conclusion was:

“Indeed, no significant casualty reduction was found in the sled tests or any of the accident data files, in spite of the large samples of data analyzed and the strenuous efforts to avoid biases in the analyses. Positive results were not obtained for any seating position (front seat occupants with nobody sitting behind them, front seat occupants with somebody sitting behind them, back seat passengers) or any specific injury type. No benefits were found in frontal crashes, or for restrained occupants, or unrestrained occupants.”

Also:

“Summary
This preliminary evaluation analyzes numerous sled tests and over a million accident cases, but none of the data showed significant benefits for SBL...  the data make a strong case that SBL have little or no overall effect on fatalities and injuries.”

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/807067

Bill

> On Aug 12, 2020, at 1:34 AM, Jay Maechtlen via VirtualVairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org> wrote:
> 
> On 8/10/2020 4:24 AM, William Hubbell via VirtualVairs wrote:
> If your goal is to make a 50+ year car as safe as a modern car, you’re probably in the wrong hobby.
lol!
> 
> Modern car safety is about a lot more than just locking the seat backs.

I think the locking seat backs are to keep the passenger in the rear from crashing into/through you.

The seat back doesn't weigh much, but the 120-220 pounder in the back...

And it's not the braking that's the issue - it is the deceleration that happens when the car hits something and goes from 30-0 in the 2 1/2 feet of crush distance!

-- 
Jay Maechtlen
SoCal
'61 2-dr modified w/fiberglass skin,
transverse 3.8 Buick V6 TH440T4 trans
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