Safety Belt for Susie (1963)

oh [Music] [Music] [Music] you remember how much fun you had in an amusement park when you were a kid well when you're a parent you live it all over again for the eyes of your child that's my little girl man it's her first visit to this fabulous World of Fun and frolly a treat Alice and I had promised her before sending her on a visit to Grandma's oh I'm sorry I forgot to introduce Susie Nancy would never forgive me she's made Susie an important part of our family you know how it is when a little girl has no brothers or sisters her dog can become pretty important and sometimes so help me I almost think the girl I mean the doll has a personality of her own sometimes the upkeep on suie stretches our family budget Nancy wants her to have dresses just like she has and makes sure Susie shares all the f family treats well it is amusing and of course uh we don't spoil her like this all the time Nancy was only worried about one thing would she remember every single bit of excitement so she could tell it all to Grandma Alice said roller coasters are all right but she prefers riding in the family car we both enjoy taking long drives together and this one had a special purpose we were on our way to pick up Nancy she had been with Alice's mother for a week it seemed a lot longer than that the house had been so quiet but we did have suie to keep us company with everything that Nancy had to take on the plane there just hadn't been room for a playmate the size of Susie then less than a half an hour out of town je watch [Music] out although we were both wearing seat belts Alice was badly shaken up I blame myself for maybe driving a little too fast you always feel guilty at a time like this even when it's the other fellow's fault I'd have to get Alice over to Dr mallister right away then we discovered something that gave us both a genuine shock what if this had been [Music] Nancy I examined both Mr and Mrs Norwood and was happy to tell them that apart from a few abrasions and shattered nerves they had suffered no serious injury if they hadn't been wearing their seat belts however the verdict would have been different disastrously different I thought I was through with my patience when my eyes fell on another [Music] guilty Mr Norwood was a bit embarrassed until I told him about my work with dolls that had survived car collisions as a medical consultant for The Institute of transportation and traffic engineering in I examined the dolls that represented children and the dummies that represented adults in a scientific Collision stage by the University of California at Los Angeles [Music] strategically placed cameras covered everything that happened during impact we were especially interested in what happened to children with and without belts because this subject had not been explored but even though they were only dolls and even though these were scientific experiments we couldn't avoid a feeling of tension and a sense of impending tragedy for several months the Collision experiments continued at different speeds at different points of impact sometimes with the passengers belted sometimes unbelted [Music] [Applause] [Music] speed such as these of 30 and 40 mph may be moderate by today's driving standards but not to the motorist slammed about against Glass and Metal [Music] [Music] children should never be allowed to stand on the seat of a car sitting tends to restrict body movement generated by the forces of impact to the rear seat [Music] [Applause] [Music] in many cases where the children were not restrained our diagnosis of probable injuries showed that they would have been killed babies held on laps were thrown completely out of the [Music] car even in the most severe collisions University findings showed that the three-year-olds Seated on cushions and restrained by adult bels came through uninjured as a result of these experiments it was found that for one-year-olds the anchored harness or harness secured by passing a seat Bel strap through the loops was the most effective means of restraining the little ones we found that infants were safest in bassinets with the long axis of the bassinet aligned with the longitudinal axis of the car and strapped in this position we also found that infants or children must never be held on the lap and restrained with the adults belt as Collision forces tend to crush the child perhaps you think a collision can never happen to you but the children will be safer if you admit that it could and prepare accordingly [Music] [Music] [Applause] C [Music] [Applause] I wish that everybody could see these scenes because I don't believe that anyone who did would ever let the children go riding unrestrained again [Music] [Laughter] [Music] of course I had already made up my mind to have the back seat belts installed while the car was in the shop and we never go anywhere now that we aren't all safely belted oh yes you're probably wondering about Suzie Dr McAllister knew where to send us and now she's as good as new she may be only a doll but she's never left out and that includes a safety belt for [Music] Suzie many people who would do anything to protect their children do nothing to save them from injury pain or death in the motor accidents that can happen at any time this is a Frank appeal to all mothers and fathers without restraints such safety belts the rear seat of an automobile in itself is not adequate protection University research shows that children who will otherwise be killed can live to prove that safety is no accident n [Music]