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Seat belts 19
Safety First Operating instructions Tips and Maintenance Technical Data
Why wear seat belts?
Frontal collisions and the laws of physics
In the event of a frontal collision, a large amount of kinetic
energy must be released.
The action of the laws of physics in the case of a frontal collision may be
explained in the following way: As the vehicle moves ⇒ fig. 6 the vehicle and
the passengers alike accumulate a stored energy called “kinetic energy”.
The amount of “kinetic energy” depends on the speed of the vehicle and the
weight of the vehicle and passengers. The higher the speed and the greater
the weight, the more energy there is to be “released” in an accident.
The most significant factor, however, is the speed of the vehicle. If the speed
doubles from 25 km/h to 50 km/h, for example, the kinetic energy increases
by a factor of four.
Because the passengers in our example are not restrained by seat belts, the
entire amount of kinetic energy has to be absorbed at the point of impact
⇒ fig. 7.
Even at speeds of 30 km/h to 50 km/h, the forces acting on bodies in a colli-
sion can easily exceed one tonne (1,000 kg). At greater speed these forces
are even higher.
Passengers not wearing seat belts are not “attached” to the vehicle. In a
frontal collision they will continue to move forward at the speed their vehicle
Fig. 6 Passengers of a
vehicle heading for a brick
wall. They are not wearing
seat belts.
Fig. 7 The vehicle with
unbelted occupants
strikes the wall.
ibiza_ingles Seite 19 Mittwoch, 5. Oktober 2005 5:17 17
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