Its sad they knew these were dangerous all that time and continued to make them. Had I seen this story back in 1993 when I got my first car with automatic seatbelts I might have thought twice about driving without the lap belt, I felt perfectly safe without it and loved not having to buckle myself in for the whole 18 years I owned cars with them. It seemed like a really nice feature at them time and they even gave me a discount on my car insurance for it because it was supposed to be safer! Wasn't until I wrecked my car in 2011 that I found out just how wrong I was and I know there are many people who died because thought they were safe once the shoulder belt strapped them in. Totally false sense of security.
Oh wow!! Glad you're here to share your story, my uncle Ed wasn't so lucky, killed instantly after being pulled out the car and ran over, in his 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix, ironically his first new car, and probably the first car with automatic belts, I was 6 at the time and didn't understand much. Aunt Sandy & Uncle Frank had a 1990 Cadillac Brougham when I was a little older, maybe 8 or 9, until I was 15, same type of belts, I loved that car and went on my share of camping trips, it could tow a pretty good size camper and was basically a leather sofa on wheels, very comfortable and quiet ride. Gas filler behind the license plate, convenient if there was a line at the gas station, didn't matter where you pulled to, figured it was a good feature at the time-) I had no idea I was riding with my sister and cousins in a complete death trap, (door coming open in a crash, the steel bumper near the gas filler makes a perfect spark ignition source if rear ended, or an electrical problem with the license plate lamps) So you actually got a discount on your car insurance for automatic seat belts? Do you remember how long it lasted, and what percentage of discount? I can't understand why, but, the medical bills would make insurance premiums rise.
@@Sparky-ww5re So sorry to hear about your uncle :( I think I got a 10% discount for having them, I got that on every single car I owned with these which was part of the reason the feature was attractive to me. That saved me a lot of money over those years, little did I know I was riding around in a death trap lol.
Horrible design. I believe this is what killed my uncle Ed in August of 1996, merely a month before my 7th birthday. Anyway he owned a 1993 Grand Prix, and ironically the first new car he ever purchased. At the time when he was killed, i was too young to understand, but i still have the article in the obituary, he was apparently trying to avoid something on the road, lost control, the door opened up and he fell out of the car, and the car ran over him. Ironically even as a young boy riding in it from time to time I thought it was a very weird car because of the seat belts on the doors, R.I.P Edward Thomas 01-26-1964 - 08-17-1996. A prime example of government overreach and politicians telling the American people, "trust us, we know what best for you "
I have the automatic belts in my 1991 Eagle Premier, definitely a bad idea for sure and it is no wonder why other countries did not mandate it. Kids these days sure do get a kick out of it.
Obviously it didn’t work, especially in GM’s case with their door mounted seat belts. Drivers of GM cars used them correctly and still lost their lives. A regular three pointed seat belt attached to the car itself, and not the door, is the most effective
In 2001-2003 my mom had a 1994 Mitsubishi Eclipse, with auto-belts but no airbags. I remember not buckling my lap belt, thinking that the shoulder belt was enough, because the car buckled it for me and I thought that's what "automatic seat belt" meant, that it was 100% automatic. I was 8-10 years old at the time, and in cars with standard belts, just buckled the whole thing. The federal government passed a law that required all cars starting with the 1990 model year to have either auto-belts or a driver airbag. I think, in addition to that, 5% of 1987 vehicles, 25% of 1988, and 40% of 1989 cars had to have the auto-belts before full implementation for 1990. Not surprisingly, most automakers went the auto-belt route because auto-belts were cheaper than airbags. Because of reports like this, as well as the fact that the auto-belts were inconvenient, consumers began to demand airbag-equipped cars over cars with auto-belts. By the 1992 model year, more cars had bags than auto-belts and on December 18, 1991 the federal government finally signed a law that said all vehicles had to have dual airbags by the 1998 model year, auto-belts would no longer meet the requirement. My mom's 1994 Eclipse was one of the last cars equipped with auto-belts, they were fairly rare by '94 and totally gone after 1996 I think, the Ford Escort was one of the last vehicles to have them (oddly, because 1995 and newer Escorts had dual airbags). As this video showed, auto-belts were actually counterproductive, even when they were used properly they added no safety to what had already been in cars for over two decades (manual 3-point belts). Airbags, on the other hand, add safety for people already using the belts. June 15, 2022 2:58 am
And you're right, airbags were much better and more effective than auto belts, in many ways, although airbags can prove deadly for children and small adults, especially if they are not buckled and /or sitting too close to the airbag when it deployed, nonetheless airbags along with seat belts, saved my life 5 years ago when I was in a serious crash, a 68 yr old lady driving 2001 Dodge caravan ran a stop sign, and I T boned the van while driving around 60 MPH in my 2013 Ford Focus, although suffering many bruises, sprains and whiplash injuries causing me to be out of work for almost a month, made a full recovery. Sadly the minivan driver was deceased after flipping in a ditch, she was not wearing a seat belt.
When I bought my Honda accord with them in 1993 the salesperson touted the fact that I never needed to put the seatbelt on myself as a selling point! I guess they will say anything to sell cars lol
We have the technology to make automatic seat belts more safer and I do believe at least someday in the future, they will make a comeback, it will probably be, seats will have sensors in them and the car can pinpoint where you're sitting and it can tell the automatic seat belt where at the person is in the seat so it can safely buckle them in automatically and we do have the technology to do that today if anyone wanted to
I personally don’t think automatic seat belts are likely to come back, especially as from what i have heard they are quite unreliable, the mechanism would often break (Another thing, is that as far as i know, automatic seat belts never made their way outside of America, which is probably actually one of the reasons why i did not even know there was such a thing until 24 hours ago)
It’s a stupid system with a stupid name. There is nothing “automatic” about these automatic seat belts and people died because of the misleading term. Just sticking with the normal three pointed seat belt would’ve been more effective.
Its sad they knew these were dangerous all that time and continued to make them. Had I seen this story back in 1993 when I got my first car with automatic seatbelts I might have thought twice about driving without the lap belt, I felt perfectly safe without it and loved not having to buckle myself in for the whole 18 years I owned cars with them. It seemed like a really nice feature at them time and they even gave me a discount on my car insurance for it because it was supposed to be safer! Wasn't until I wrecked my car in 2011 that I found out just how wrong I was and I know there are many people who died because thought they were safe once the shoulder belt strapped them in. Totally false sense of security.
Oh wow!! Glad you're here to share your story, my uncle Ed wasn't so lucky, killed instantly after being pulled out the car and ran over, in his 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix, ironically his first new car, and probably the first car with automatic belts, I was 6 at the time and didn't understand much. Aunt Sandy & Uncle Frank had a 1990 Cadillac Brougham when I was a little older, maybe 8 or 9, until I was 15, same type of belts, I loved that car and went on my share of camping trips, it could tow a pretty good size camper and was basically a leather sofa on wheels, very comfortable and quiet ride. Gas filler behind the license plate, convenient if there was a line at the gas station, didn't matter where you pulled to, figured it was a good feature at the time-) I had no idea I was riding with my sister and cousins in a complete death trap, (door coming open in a crash, the steel bumper near the gas filler makes a perfect spark ignition source if rear ended, or an electrical problem with the license plate lamps)
So you actually got a discount on your car insurance for automatic seat belts? Do you remember how long it lasted, and what percentage of discount? I can't understand why, but, the medical bills would make insurance premiums rise.
@@Sparky-ww5re So sorry to hear about your uncle :( I think I got a 10% discount for having them, I got that on every single car I owned with these which was part of the reason the feature was attractive to me. That saved me a lot of money over those years, little did I know I was riding around in a death trap lol.
Horrible design. I believe this is what killed my uncle Ed in August of 1996, merely a month before my 7th birthday. Anyway he owned a 1993 Grand Prix, and ironically the first new car he ever purchased. At the time when he was killed, i was too young to understand, but i still have the article in the obituary, he was apparently trying to avoid something on the road, lost control, the door opened up and he fell out of the car, and the car ran over him. Ironically even as a young boy riding in it from time to time I thought it was a very weird car because of the seat belts on the doors, R.I.P Edward Thomas 01-26-1964 - 08-17-1996.
A prime example of government overreach and politicians telling the American people, "trust us, we know what best for you "
Sorry that you lost your uncle, and you said it very well there at the end...
Did your parents sue like typical Americans
I have the automatic belts in my 1991 Eagle Premier, definitely a bad idea for sure and it is no wonder why other countries did not mandate it. Kids these days sure do get a kick out of it.
These automatic seat belts are NOT unsafe. If these safety systems are used properly, they WORK.
Obviously it didn’t work, especially in GM’s case with their door mounted seat belts. Drivers of GM cars used them correctly and still lost their lives. A regular three pointed seat belt attached to the car itself, and not the door, is the most effective
In 2001-2003 my mom had a 1994 Mitsubishi Eclipse, with auto-belts but no airbags. I remember not buckling my lap belt, thinking that the shoulder belt was enough, because the car buckled it for me and I thought that's what "automatic seat belt" meant, that it was 100% automatic. I was 8-10 years old at the time, and in cars with standard belts, just buckled the whole thing.
The federal government passed a law that required all cars starting with the 1990 model year to have either auto-belts or a driver airbag. I think, in addition to that, 5% of 1987 vehicles, 25% of 1988, and 40% of 1989 cars had to have the auto-belts before full implementation for 1990. Not surprisingly, most automakers went the auto-belt route because auto-belts were cheaper than airbags. Because of reports like this, as well as the fact that the auto-belts were inconvenient, consumers began to demand airbag-equipped cars over cars with auto-belts. By the 1992 model year, more cars had bags than auto-belts and on December 18, 1991 the federal government finally signed a law that said all vehicles had to have dual airbags by the 1998 model year, auto-belts would no longer meet the requirement. My mom's 1994 Eclipse was one of the last cars equipped with auto-belts, they were fairly rare by '94 and totally gone after 1996 I think, the Ford Escort was one of the last vehicles to have them (oddly, because 1995 and newer Escorts had dual airbags).
As this video showed, auto-belts were actually counterproductive, even when they were used properly they added no safety to what had already been in cars for over two decades (manual 3-point belts). Airbags, on the other hand, add safety for people already using the belts.
June 15, 2022 2:58 am
And you're right, airbags were much better and more effective than auto belts, in many ways, although airbags can prove deadly for children and small adults, especially if they are not buckled and /or sitting too close to the airbag when it deployed, nonetheless airbags along with seat belts, saved my life 5 years ago when I was in a serious crash, a 68 yr old lady driving 2001 Dodge caravan ran a stop sign, and I T boned the van while driving around 60 MPH in my 2013 Ford Focus, although suffering many bruises, sprains and whiplash injuries causing me to be out of work for almost a month, made a full recovery. Sadly the minivan driver was deceased after flipping in a ditch, she was not wearing a seat belt.
You would THINK that the sellers would tell people to buckle the lap belt.
When I bought my Honda accord with them in 1993 the salesperson touted the fact that I never needed to put the seatbelt on myself as a selling point! I guess they will say anything to sell cars lol
So this is why we don’t get automatic seat belt on new car
We have the technology to make automatic seat belts more safer and I do believe at least someday in the future, they will make a comeback, it will probably be, seats will have sensors in them and the car can pinpoint where you're sitting and it can tell the automatic seat belt where at the person is in the seat so it can safely buckle them in automatically and we do have the technology to do that today if anyone wanted to
I personally don’t think automatic seat belts are likely to come back, especially as from what i have heard they are quite unreliable, the mechanism would often break
(Another thing, is that as far as i know, automatic seat belts never made their way outside of America, which is probably actually one of the reasons why i did not even know there was such a thing until 24 hours ago)
What's even the point if you still have to buckle the waist belt. ?
I’m sorry but these people are insane. It’s not the automatic seatbelts fault THAT YOU DON’T REMEMBER TO PUT YOUR LAP BELT ON.
It’s a stupid system with a stupid name. There is nothing “automatic” about these automatic seat belts and people died because of the misleading term. Just sticking with the normal three pointed seat belt would’ve been more effective.
NO CLOSED CAPTIONS = TWO THUMBS DOWN!!!
Those execs who justified this unsafe seatbelt are burning in hell
No it’s not. It was user error that caused those tragedies. The Automatic should belt needs to be worn with the manual lap belt.