Why Wear Seat Belts - Seat Leon 2010 Owner's Manual

Why wear seat belts?

Physical principles of frontal collisions
In the event of a frontal collision, a large amount of kinetic
energy must be absorbed.
Safety first
Fig. 6 Vehicle about to hit
a wall: the occupants are
not wearing seat belts
Operating instructions
It is easy to explain how the laws of physics work in the case of a head-on
collision: When a vehicle starts moving
known as "kinetic energy" is produced in the vehicle and its occupants.
The amount of "kinetic energy" depends on the speed of the vehicle and the
weight of the vehicle and its passengers. The higher the speed and the
greater the weight, the more energy there is to be "released" in an accident.
The most significant factor, however, is the speed of the vehicle. If the speed
doubles from 25 km/h to 50 km/h, for example, the kinetic energy is multi-
plied by four.
Because the passengers in our example are not restrained by seat belts, all
of the passengers' kinetic energy has to be absorbed at the point of impact
⇒ fig.
7.
Even at speeds of 30 km/h to 50 km/h, the forces acting on bodies in a colli-
sion can easily exceed one tonne (1000 kg). At greater speed these forces are
even higher.
Passengers not wearing seat belts are not "attached" to the vehicle. In a
frontal collision, they will move forward at the same speed their vehicle was
Practical tips
Seat belts
Fig. 7 The vehicle hits
the wall: the occupants
are not wearing seat belts
⇒ fig.
6, a certain amount of energy
Technical data
21