Samenvatting
An impact simulator was used for determining the performance of motor- vehicle seat belts equipped with retractors during simulated impacts at 13.5 m/ s. The results of this study indicate that a retractor- equipped strap behaves less stiffly than a rigidly- anchored strap, allowing greater forward motion of the body parts restrained by the strap and reducing the peak accelerations of these parts. In a harness in which the retractor is in the lap- belt, the head and shoulder trajectories are similar to those when a harness .without retractors is used.