{"id":222265,"date":"2022-03-31T17:11:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T21:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=222265"},"modified":"2022-03-31T17:16:33","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T21:16:33","slug":"seat-belts-could-save-more-lives-annually-if-automakers-improved-reminders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2022\/03\/seat-belts-could-save-more-lives-annually-if-automakers-improved-reminders\/","title":{"rendered":"Seat Belts Could Save More Lives Annually if Automakers Improved Reminders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seat belts save lives, however, if automakers could improve the reminder technology for the devices, they could save as many as 1,500 more people annually, according to new research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Seat
IIHS says automakers could save more lives if they improved the seat belt reminders in vehicles.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says its readying a new ratings program for seat belt reminder systems<\/a><\/u><\/strong>, in hopes of getting automakers and federal safety regulators to bolster their effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy now everybody knows that seat belts save lives when they are used,\u201d says IIHS President David Harkey. \u201cOur research shows that effective seat belt reminders can also save lives by getting those who aren\u2019t diligent about belt use to buckle up. These new ratings are designed to push manufacturers to realize that potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making the grade?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Federal standards specify that seat belt reminders must include an audible signal that lasts for 4-8 seconds total and a visual alert that lasts at least 60 seconds whenever the driver\u2019s seat belt is unbuckled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, previous IIHS research has shown that more noticeable and persistent alerts could increase belt use among those who do not routinely buckle up by as much as 34%, preventing an estimated 1,500 fatalities a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost Americans use their seat belts, especially in the front seat. But the small number who don\u2019t translates into a lot of fatalities,\u201d said Harkey. \u201cAlmost half of the drivers and front seat passengers killed in crashes in 2019 weren\u2019t belted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Buckle
Features like Chevrolet\u2019s Buckle to Drive technology helps improve belt usage.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

People caught not wearing a seat belt often claim they simply forgot to put it on and that a \u201cpersistent reminder\u201d to buckle up would increase their usage rate. It was on par, according to IIHS, with limiting a vehicle\u2019s speed to just 15 mph until the seat belt was buckled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First round of checks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

IIHS said it test 26 vehicles \u2014 small and midsize SUVs \u2014 and only two received a \u201cgood\u201d rating: the Subaru Ascent and Forester. Five others received acceptable ratings: Hyundai Palisade and Tucson, and Nissan Murano, Pathfinder and Rogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All 26 SUVs meet the IIHS standard for the pitch, or audio frequency, of the audible alert, but various other issues bring down scores such as the alerts not being long enough or not starting soon enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some simple software adjustments could probably lift all of the marginal and some of the poor performers to an acceptable rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of these problems don\u2019t require new hardware,\u201d said IIHS Senior Test Coordinator Sean O\u2019Malley. \u201cEven among the vehicles that earn poor ratings, it\u2019s possible that simply lengthening the duration of the audible alert could do the trick.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seat belts save lives, however, if automakers could improve the reminder technology for the devices, they could save as many as 1,500 more people annually, according to new research. Get the story at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":222266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7,8,5,1169,13,9],"tags":[5500,2319,4584,5499,5501],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222271,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222265\/revisions\/222271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222265"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=222265"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=222265"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=222265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}