Cupra BORN 2024 - Head-On Collisions and the Laws of Physics

42
Safety
Fig.17 Instrument cluster: seat belt status
display.
When the ignition is switched on, the seat belt
status display ›››Fig.17 informs the driver on
the instrument cluster display whether the oc-
cupants have their seat belts fastened.
Depending on seat occupancy and the status
of the seat belts, the vehicle's seats will light up
in dierent colours:
A grey light indicates that the correspond-
ing seat is not occupied.
A green light indicates that the seat is oc-
cupied and the occupant is wearing the
seat belt.
A red light indicates that the seat is occu-
pied and the occupant is not wearing the
seat belt.
If a speed of 25km/h (15mph) is exceeded
after moving o without the driver or a front
passenger seatbelt being fastened, or if the
seatbelt is unfastened while driving, an audible
signal will sound for 126 seconds. In addition,
the warning lamp on the instrument cluster
display ashes.
The lamp goes out when the ignition is on and
all occupants have fastened their seat belts.
Head-on collisions and the laws of
physics
Fig.18 A driver not wearing a seat belt
may be thrown forward violently.
Fig.19
Any rear seat occupants not
wearing a seat belt may be thrown forward
violently, hitting the driver who is wearing
the seat belt.
The eects of the laws of physics in the case
of a head-on collision are easy to explain: the
moment a vehicle starts moving, a type of en-
ergy called “kinetic energy” starts acting on
both the vehicle and its passengers.
The amount of “kinetic energy” depends on
the speed of the vehicle and on the weight
of the vehicle and of its passengers. The taller
they are, the more energy there is to be “ab-
sorbed” in the event of an accident.
The most signicant factor, however, is the
speed of the vehicle. If the speed doubles from
25 km/h (15mph) to 50 km/h (30mph), for
example, the corresponding kinetic energy is
multiplied by four.