Samenvatting
Eighteen of the most severe examples of injury and damage concerning vehicle collisions involving at least one occupant wearing a lap-shoulder safety belt are described. Of these cases, 60% of the vehicles involved had suffered damage associated with occupant injury, although in fact 99% of the safety belt users had either no injury or only minor injury. It is shown how the use of different safety belt configurations such as lap-belt, lap-shoulder belt or refusal to wear safety belts affects the severity of injuries.