The Natural Philosopher wrote
dennis@home wrote
hugh ] wrote

Nope they were abandoned, seat belts were mad compulsary and much
much later air bags were reintroduced as they were very effective
when used in conjunction with a seat belt
I know cos I was there
End Of.

You don't need seat belts for airbags to work.
Look at side impact bags, the seat belt does sod all but the air bag
still helps you to survive.
What seat belts do is keep you out of the danger area when the bag
goes off.

Of course cost was a big reason why they weren't popular in the '60s.
They were expensive and they didn't have microcontrollers to make
them reliable.

Indeed. airbags are a lessgood alternative to properly designed cars and proper seat belts, which is why no racing
teams use them at all - its been shwon that proper side impacts test front impact tests, crumple zones and a full
racing harness and a roll cage is how you get the BEST chance of survival.

In fact adding air bags to that gives you even BETTER chance of survival.

Nevertheless they are better than nothing if someone smacks into
something with a sloppily tightened lap and diagonal, or no belts at all.

And much better than just those things you listed alone in those circumstances.

It took me just one crash right in front of my eyes at a club motor race to decide that on balance, I would never ever
drive without a seat belt again.

Mini 70mph head on into a concrete wall with just two rows of tyres in between.

I thought the driver was dead, but after a couple of seconds he smashed the door open, got out and hit the car in
frustration - and walked away..just as the marshals arrived.

OTOH I saw someone killed in front of me when he was thrown out of a
vintage racing car with no belts at all - and run over by the driver following.