Why Everyone Should Wear a Seatbelt When Operating or Riding as a Passenger in a Motor Vehicle

It is the law.

There are however more important reasons for wearing seat belts than just that one alone. The number one reason should be for health and safety of you and your passengers. We will give you the basic understanding of seat belts, and some reasons for using seat belts.

To understand the forces involved in a crash it is first necessary to examine how much force an object experiences as it comes to a stop. Most people feel like 50 k/h as a relatively slow speed, and may imagine that crashes at that speed are minor. But look at the physics involved in a 50 k/h crash. A 50 k/h crash exerts about 20 G's of deceleration on the vehicle (i.e., 20 times the force of gravity). A 5 kg infant in a motor vehicle moving at 50 k/h will require at least 250 kgs of force to restrain the infant from moving forward.

Force = Body Weight x Speed

Force = 5 kgs x 50 k/h

Force = 250 kgs of restraining force is needed.

In every vehicle crash, there are actually three collisions that take place:

1. Vehicle collision(1st): When the vehicle collides with an object, such as another vehicle, a wall or tree.

2. Human collision(2nd): When the occupant moves toward the point of impact until stopped by a barrier. Unrestrained occupants collide with the interior of the vehicle, other occupants and or other unrestrained objects in the vehicle.

3. Internal collision(3rd): When the brain and internal organs move toward the point of impact, tearing connective tissue or being bruised by the collision with bones and other organs. An example of this would be the liver hitting the kidneys, or the brain hitting the front of the skull.

An injury is caused by the transfer of energy to body tissue, whether it is the energy of heat in a burn or the energy of mechanical force in a crash.

In the first collision [vehicle collision], the vehicle begins stopping as soon as it collides with a stationary object. From the time of impact, to a complete stop in a 50 k/h crash is about one-tenth of a second. As the vehicle slows, the front of the vehicle crushes, absorbing some of the energy of the impact. This known as "ride down". A properly restrained occupant can ride down the crash (stopping with the vehicle), experiencing about the same amount of force as the vehicle.

In the second collision [human collision], a restrained occupant decreases the chances of injury during this collision because the seat belts stretch during impact, which absorbs the energy of the impact, and restrains the occupant in their seat. Sometimes the safety belts can leave bruises and sores after the impact, but they are rarely severe. An unrestrained occupant on the other hand, continues to move toward the point of impact, even though the vehicle begins to stop once impact occurs. The unrestrained occupant finally encounters an outside force (the interior of the vehicle) about the time that the vehicle has come to a complete stop or is bouncing back. As the occupant collides with the interior of the vehicle, he or she decelerates from 50 k/h to a standstill in a few hundredths of a second, much faster than did the vehicle. The unrestrained occupant may experience over 100 G's of deceleration (compared to the vehicle's 20 G's). The more rigid the materials encountered and the rebound of the vehicle shorten the period of deceleration and generates higher G force. With only the occupant’s body to absorb the energy of the crash, the risk of injury is high. Ejection is very high as well.

In the third collision [internal collision], injuries could be very severe depending on the force of the impact. Even though the outer body may appear uninjured, the liver, spleen, kidneys and other organs may be torn, bruised and/or bleeding. Impacts to the head that do occur.may cause "closed head injuries" resulting from the soft tissue of the brain hitting the skull or being torn as the skull fractures. Any of these injuries may be difficult to detect immediately, yet they are often fatal.

Although tissue damage frequently occurs at the time of the accident, the “symptoms” may not show up right away. Mid 2003 tests reveal that when the front of a 3,500-pound car, traveling at only 10 miles per hour, strikes the rear of another vehicle, it can transmit a force of 25 tons to the motor vehicle it struck.

Car Crash

Some factors to note: The G-force of a car crash is depending on stopping distance. This would be how many feet the car gets squashed, and how much the object that got run into, moves, or gets crunched. The following table would apply. Stopping "s" distance and amount of G-force experienced: If a car going 122 MPH hits a brick wall, and crunches the front of the car. Lets assume as a worst case the wall doesn't move, and the squash of the car distance summed with the amount of squash of the air bag to be 5 ft, then, the body on an average would feel 100 G-force. Actually I think it would start lower, and build up to more than this. This would be due to, harder to squash the last 1 ft, as compared to the first 1 ft.

Swedish games mogul smashes million dollar Ferrari

Published: 22nd February 2006 10:28 CET

A rare one-million-dollar Ferrari sports car belonging to a Swedish game industry mogul slammed into a pole during a high-speed street race on Tuesday, reducing it to scrap metal, US police said.

Police in the plush Los Angeles district of Malibu said the 2003 Ferrari Enzo, only 399 of which were ever made, was owned by Stefan Eriksson, 44, a controversial former executive of the failed handheld gaming company Gizmondo.

The driver lost control of the Ferrari at around dawn when it careened up an embankment, probably became airborne and then slammed into a pole, slicing the vehicle in half, police said.

Eriksson, who was slightly injured in the crash, told police he was a passenger in the vehicle and that the driver was a German man called Dietrich who had fled the scene, Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Sergeant Philip Brooks told AFP.

"Whoever was driving the Ferrari and a Mercedes came out to Malibu for a little race," Sheriff's Department Sergeant Philip Brooks said. "The other car racing was a (500,000-dollar) SLR Mercedes," he said.

Eriksson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.09, which is above the legal limit, Brooks said, adding that nobody had been arrested in connection with the crash but that officers were still seeking to identify the driver of the car.

"He's still considered as the passenger," Brooks said of Eriksson. "We're continuing our investigation. He's not in custody."

The red Ferrari Enzo, other examples of which are owned by such high-flyers as Oscar-winning movie star Nicolas Cage and US fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, was speeding are more than 192 kilometers an hour (120 mph) when the crash occurred, Brooks said.

The impact sheared the red Italian sports car in two, separating the entire front section from the rest of the vehicle. The 650 horsepower car had a top speed of more than 360 kilometers (225 miles) per hour.

"For a million dollars, you get a very good passenger-safety system, and apparently, in this case, it did work," Brooks said.

Police determined that Eriksson was once an executive of the video game industry firm Gizmondo.

"He told us he is or was the head of Gizmondo," Brooks said, adding also that Eriksson had previously professionally raced Ferraris in Europe.

Internet records show that Eriksson was the executive officer of Gizmondo Europe -- a unit of a US company Tiger Telematics -- which developed games and a high-tech gaming console.

British press reports said Eriksson resigned in October last year after a Swedish newspaper claimed he was convicted in Sweden in the early 1990s for alleged involvement with a Swedish mafia outfit.

The company filed for bankruptcy in Britain last month after reporting a net loss of 140 million pounds (225 million dollars) for the third quarter of 2005 on sales of 1.4 million pounds.

Also state, ferrari called and said there is a black box in the car that will tell how fast he was going.

The Plot Thickens in Ferrari Crash

A gun's magazine found near the wreckage may be connected to the accident, and a Scottish bank says it might own the destroyed car.

By Richard Winton and David Pierson, Times Staff Writers

February 28 2006

The mystery deepened Monday in the case of the puzzling crash last week of a $1-million Ferrari Enzo on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

Sheriff's detectives said Monday that they believe a gun's magazine discovered near the wreckage is connected to the crash, and they plan to interview an unnamed person who they believe was in the car with Swedish game machine entrepreneur Stefan Eriksson.

The crash has also garnered the attention of a leading Scottish bank, which has informed sheriff's investigators that it may own the destroyed car. At the same time, detectives are trying to figure out why another exotic car in Eriksson's extensive collection, a Mercedes SLR, was listed as stolen by Scotland Yard in London, said Sheriff's Sgt. Phil Brooks.

The totaled Ferrari was one of two Enzos that Eriksson brought into the United States from England along with the Mercedes SLR, Brooks said. But detectives concluded that the totaled vehicle did not have appropriate papers and was not "street legal" for driving in California, he said.

Detectives have been trying for nearly a week to sort out what exactly happened last Tuesday morning when Eriksson's Enzo — one of only 400 ever made — smashed into a telephone pole, totaling the car. Eriksson told deputies that he was the passenger and that a man he knew only as "Dietrich" was behind the wheel. But detectives have been openly skeptical of the story, noting that Eriksson had a bloody lip and that the only blood they found in the car was on the driver's-side air bag.

Brooks said detectives have called in Eriksson for another interview. Eriksson has declined through the security guard at his gated Bel-Air estate to comment. An attorney who has previously represented Eriksson in civil matters, Ashley Posner, also declined to comment Monday.

But some city leaders in Malibu, where the crash has been the talk of the town, were less circumspect.

"The guy should have had an IQ test," said Malibu Mayor Pro Tem Ken Kearsley, who has been following the coverage of the crash with a half-grin. The driver's IQ "couldn't come up above 60 if he was doing 120 on PCH," Kearsley said.

But in fact, Brooks said Monday, the car was traveling 162 mph when it crashed, far faster than the 120 mph originally believed. The Ferrari, with just a few inches of undercarriage clearance, hit a bump at a crest in the road, sending the vehicle airborne and into the power pole, Brooks said.

Brooks said they are investigating whether someone else may have been present and are trying to determine whether the recovered gun component is connected to the case. He declined to say more about the find or elaborate on the status of the Scottish bank and Scotland Yard in the case.

The question of whether Eriksson was the driver is key to the case, Brooks said. Eriksson's blood-alcohol level was 0.09%, higher than the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle.

Sheriff's officials are still trying to confirm witness reports that the Ferrari might have been drag racing with another car, and officials aren't sure if that's what happened.

Sheriff's officials said Eriksson was an executive with a game company that attempted to take on Sony and Nintendo, but the firm collapsed last year.

In Malibu, officials said they are not sure what to make of the accident.

Kearsley said the stretch of road was not known for drag racing, but for run-of-the-mill speeders. He said the Sheriff's Department has had success for the last year and a half using radar and lasers to catch overzealous drivers. The lasers are not detectable to drivers, he said.

"It's straight as an arrow where the accident was," he said. "You really have to go out of your way to hit a telephone pole."

Carol Moss, a longtime Malibu resident, activist and meditation group leader, said the accident came as no surprise.

"It was horrendous, but Malibu is full of idiots," she said. "There are a lot of wild cars and irresponsible people. The roads are dangerous. You always see people with those sorts of cars. You see some wild behavior."

But, in keeping with her Zen frame of mind, Moss extended an olive branch. "Everyone is welcome to attend the meditation group. Even the drag racer."