Date:         Wed, 4 Dec 1996 07:56:40 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         James Cohen <jscohen@m2.sprynet.com>
Subject:      Safety: Harnesses better than seatbelts?

On the subject of better safety, does anyone know if 4 point harnesses are
a lot better than standard 3 point belts?  All race car drivers use them,
and many auto crossers (and wannabes) use them over on the Corrado list.

Now they look like they would do a better job than the standard belts, but
is it a marginarily better job, or a huge difference.  If anyone has some
info please let me know.

I'm always interested in more safety and harnesses are fairly inexpensive
and might be worth it if they provide a significant improvement.

I started giving this idea more thought when my girlfriend got into a
head-on collison in her parents minivan with another minivan.  Both vans
were totaled but she wasn't seriously hurt. Her head hit the steering wheel
giving her quite a shiner, her knees hit the dash badly bruising them and
she couldn't walk well for a week, and she was bruised across her chest and
hips where the belt was.  It was a low speed impact (20-30 mph) and she was
wearing her seat belt (if she hadn't her face would've gone through the
windshield and she'd be having it rebuilt!) but a harness might've
prevented almost all the injuries she did get.

James