![]() He discovered that such fatalities inevitably resulted when occupants were ejected and crushed either by the vehicle rolling over them or by crashing themselves into a tree, pole, curb or whatever. Sergeant Paul noticed that, in many fatal highway crashes, the vehicle really wasn’t badly damaged, yet the people were dead. This was disproved in the early 1950s by an Indiana State Policeman named Elmer Paul. There’s a persistence mythology even today about automotive safety that says you’re better off if you’re “thrown out” of a car in a crash. The seatbelt interlock was, in my opinion, a good idea whose time simply had not come. ![]() With only a six-month lead-time, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) mandated the device for all 1974 model cars in the U.S. This seat-belt interlock somewhat crudely, prevented the car from being started unless all front-seat occupants buckled their safety belts first. Thirty-five years ago, and say 175,000 unnecessary deaths since, we as a nation had a proven preventative-but the public, the critics and above all Congress muffed it. ![]() While car enthusiasts, engineers, critics and regulators all rejoice today at the impressively higher safety belt wearing rates that have contributed importantly to lower rates of fatalities in crashes, the road here has been rough. How to enrage the public in six easy steps. ![]()
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