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'Some Seat Belt Buckles Safer Than Others' According to South Carolina Attorney

20 December 1999

'Some Seat Belt Buckles Safer Than Others' According to South Carolina Attorney

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 -- "Evidence is mounting that some seat
belt buckles are more prone to fail during some crashes than others,"
according to J. Kendall Few, a widely respected South Carolina trial lawyer
and seat belt buckle researcher.  "However, unless manufacturers are willing
to make this information public, it is not possible for consumers to know
which buckles they have in their cars," Few said.
    Few has identified a seat belt buckle design feature called a "lock for
the latch," that helps prevent buckles from opening during a crash.  Tests
conducted by recognized experts in the field, confirm that under impact
conditions buckles with the "lock for the latch" design feature remain
fastened while buckles without the design feature regularly fail.
    "You're not likely to know whether you have the more trustworthy design
until it's too late," Few said. "Every year countless people are injured in
vehicle crashes even though they insist they were wearing their seat belt.  It
is impossible to know how many people are killed or injured each year because
their seat belt buckle released during a crash.  Investigating police officers
and rescue personnel who find an injured person not wearing a safety belt,
tend to report that the person had failed to "buckle up,"  Few said in
announcing that he has created an internet website (http://www.seatbeltbuckle.com)
and is sponsoring the issue on The Safety Forum (http://www.safetyforum.com) to raise
the level of awareness about this is problem.
    "The phenomenon, called 'inertial unlatching,' publicly dismissed by
automakers and the U.S. government,  is a clear and present danger in tens of
millions of motor vehicles," Few said.  He recounted how his exhaustive
research revealed that "repeated warnings of the danger of inertial unlatching
began to appear in the patent literature as early as 1952.  A 1967 patent
warned that seat belt buckles should be "positive locking" and not simply
"spring held."  A General Motors patent added in 1982 that a properly designed
latch should be "physically blocked in the latched position" to prevent
unlatching by "inertia forces acting on the vehicle body."
    Few's patent review is part of a massive, "Seat Belt Buckle Safety Study,"
a 7-volume report that he has authored.  The study includes illustrations and
descriptions of a collection of seat belt buckles that Few collected from more
than 2000 vehicles in 15 countries.
    Few found that buckles with anti-inertial unlatching features were being
used in some production vehicles manufactured abroad as early as 1969,
including on such Japanese made vehicles as the 1972-78 Chevrolet LUV Pickup
and the 1975-77 Ford Courier.  However, even today the feature is not a part
of all seat belt buckles in new cars.

    Additional information on inertial unlatching is available at
http://www.seatbeltbuckle.com and http://www.safetyforum.com.  To obtain a copy of The Seat
Belt Buckle Safety Study, call Danielle at Indexx, Inc. 864-234-1024, or
contact Kelli at staff@few.com.

    CONTACT: Kendall Few of J. Kendall Few, P.A., 864-232-6456