Audi A3 2018 - Why Use Safety Belts

LL
co
....
N
"
N
....
0
N
>
co
injury and death in automobile accidents.
For your protect ion and that of your passen-
gers, always correctly wear safety belts
when the vehicle is moving .
- Failure to pay attention to the warn ing light
that come on, could lead to personal injury.
Why use safety belts?
Frontal collisions and the law of physics
Frontal crashes create very strong forces for peo-
ple riding in vehicles .
Fig. 225 Unbe lted occupants in a vehicle head ing for a wall
Fig. 226 The vehicle crashes into the wall
The physical principles are simple . Both the vehi-
cle and the passengers possess energy which var-
ies with veh icle speed and body we ight. Engi-
neers call this energy "kinetic energy ."
The higher the speed of the vehicle and the
greater the vehicle's we ight, the more energy
that has to be "absorbed" in the crash.
Vehicle speed is the most signif icant facto r. If
the speed doubles from 15 to 30 mph (25 to
SO km/h), the energy increases 4 times!
Because the passengers of t his veh icle are not us -
ing safety belts ~
fig . 225, they will keep moving
Safet y bel t s
at t he same speed the vehicle was moving just
before the crash, until something stops them -
here, the wall ~
fig. 226 .
The same principles apply to people s itting in a
vehicle that is involved in a fronta l collision. Even
at city speeds of 20 to 30 mph (30 to SO km/h),
the forces acting on the body can reach one ton
(2,000 lbs, or 1,000 kg) or more. At greater
speeds, these forces are even higher.
People who do not use safety belts are a lso not
attached to the ir vehicle . In a frontal collis ion
they will also keep moving forward at the speed
their vehicle was travelling just before the crash.
Of course, the laws of physics don't just apply to
frontal collisions , they determine wha t happens
in all kinds of accidents and collisions .
What happens to occupants not wearing
safety belts?
In crashes unbelted occupants cannot stop
them selves from flying forward and being in-
jured or killed. Always wear your safety belts!
Fig. 227 A driver not wear ing a safe ty belt is violen tly
throw n forward
Fig. 228 A rea r passe nger not wearin g a safety belt will fly
forwa rd a nd strike the drive r
Ill-
261