Safety Through Seat Belts (ca. 1960)

[Music] [Music] how would you like to be flying one of these planes exciting dangerous looks that way doesn't it well actually most flying has become routine by now and the men who fly are skilled professionals who reduce the normal hazards to standardized [Music] procedures in Maneuvers like these the man and the Machine are one in the air the pilot feels his job is relatively safe everything is under control but when he gets back to Earth conditions change there are now new elements of danger this is Lieutenant White a Navy test pilot and also an engineer Lieutenant White is a realist and his job he has to be he has a healthy respect for accidents the unforeseen the uncontrollable but he has an even greater respect for safety precautions both in the air and on the ground nearly everyone is familiar with the safety belts used in all types of aircraft their effectiveness has been proven by years of testing and actual use not just in the air but also on the ground where we drive or ride in that most lethal of wheel wonders the automobile this then is a film about safety through seat belts Lieutenant White plans to protect the lives of his family on the road he does not expect to get into a serious accident for he is a careful driver but he is also a man influenced by facts and the brutal facts about Auto morality are now painfully clear despite the improvements in both roads and cars incorporating many performance and safety features the auto accident toll in human life continues to mount and until it has now reached over 1 and 1/2 million injuries each year and contrary to popular belief death dealing collisions are not all highspeed accidents 73% of them occur at moderate speeds within a 30m radius of the victim's home a young mother and two children died in this one they were on their way to Nursery School when their car was rammed at an intersection the mother and her three-year-old son were crushed in the impact the 5-year-old died in the arms of the rescue squad a doctor on his way to surgery was fatally injured here he suffered compound fractures of the skull he was dead by the time he reached the hospital this senseless waste of human life such deadly violence ensuing from what appeared to be minor collisions LED research groups such as the Institute of transportation and traffic engineering of the University of California to conduct a series of autoc crash tests this is a unique kind of research in that an experimental Collision is by nature a One-Shot operation requiring a great deal of preparation only a few seconds duration and many months of detailed analysis to evaluate the findings [Music] the experimental vehicles and their passengers have to be Expendable collisions are inherently dangerous and human subjects are not easily located even if they were however there are definite advantages to using a well-engineered mechanical substitute anthropometric dummies are the answer for they simulate the behavior of their human counterparts under the forces of collision these stock cars are elaborately instrumented to collect all the data necessary for later evaluation of just what happened in their brief moments of importance before being consigned to the scrap Peep In addition to the electronic recording apparatus cameras also record the event for study automatically controlled to begin functioning just 10 seconds before impact these motion picture and still cameras record the event from all significant angles [Music] the entire event must be under precise control at all times an aluminum monor rail guides both crash cars to a predetermined point of impact each crash car will be paced by a man vehicle carrying the recording oscillographs and other control equipment the final two days are the most critical everything is checked and rechecked they cannot afford any m functions when they have only one shot and even so things do go wrong then it is still another ordeal of checking and testing every device every connection until all human error has been eliminated the countdown finally begins all the preparation is finally concluded with a simple command all clear commence run [Music] an actual crash lasts approximately 4 seconds each fraction of which contains dozens of events of life and death significance although the cars are traveling at 30 m an hour the slow motion camera prolongs the action of the overwhelming lateral forces of this typical intersection Collision the driver of the struck car is crushed against the steering post with a force of 700 lb and the door frame with a force of 1600 lb split seconds later the violent spin forces of collision wrenched the other driver from behind the wheel the Fatal plunge of the unrestrained driver starts as he is ejected through the crash sprung door and then scrapes along the asphalt characteristically intersection Collision forces far exceed the ability of any human being to resist them despite these high Collision forces however the passenger in the rear seat although subjected to the more severe crash load of 2,000 lb was firmly held by a seat belt and sustained no serious injury the side impact experiments investigated the intersection Collision one of the most prevalent types of accident City Driving involves at least 10 intersection Crossings for each mile of progress and a major decision influencing the driver's safety must be made at least every 55 seconds drivers become so accustomed to this routine that they lose sight of the potential consequences of a moment's inattention on the part of either driver these 30 mph tests were run at various positions of impact each yielding its own specific data throughout the various experiments one fact was clear in any accident there are really two collisions one between the vehicles involved and another often more serious between the occupants and the interior of their own vehicle the forces measured on the various parts of the body at impact were obviously far outside the limits of man's ability to control his own actions these were precisely the kind of facts that they were after from out of the Twisted mass of Steel from out of the action-packed few milliseconds after all safe driving practices had already been passed when man no longer had control and was only a passenger in a lethal missile coming to a screeching halt and after the test there followed the patient analysis of just what happened inside this Tangled wreckage instrumentation revealed that the driver suffered a violent beating within the car before it stopped moving his chest was crushed against the steering column with a force of over half a ton after which he was thrown to the passenger side where he crushed his head against the window frame when the other car turned over the driver was thrown against the roof where the Ragged metal carved away a portion of his face any of the blows he suffered could have been fatal to a human being the rear passenger restrained by a safety belt sustained only minor contusions and abrasions the moral for all who witnessed the event was pretty clear but when you add it all up and write all the reports what does it mean to us the motoring public recent studies conclusively proed to the American Medical Association that safety belts diminished the extent of injury and definitely improved the crash victim's opportunity for survival the national Safety Council confirms that safety belts are the most practical device available at this time to minimize Accident Injury during a collision during the seven years that the California highway patrol cars have been using safety belts they are credited with saving a substantial number of officers lives 20 other states now require them in official cars people keep saying that speed kills US Air Force tests have proved that it isn't the speed it's the change in speed that can kill you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] properly restrained the human body can withstand enormous stresses the Public Health Service agrees with other agencies concerned with safety that the use of safety belts is the most effective practical means for bringing about an immediate reduction in deaths and injuries from automobile accidents as individuals we can be guided by the facts the stakes are too high to rest on sentiment Superstition and vague misgivings seat belts will reduce the hazard and they are available even a careful driver such as liutenant white can be involved in an accident and a safety belt is the cheapest Insurance available today's traffic requires the maximum application of all safe driving practices and the use of the best devices that science can discover to reduce the Staggering toll of accident injuries and deaths in this effort all of us as individuals have a vital state for you know safety doesn't happen by accident it takes constant vigilance to maintain it [Music]