Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
The most force your body experiences is the instant of impact.
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Ever seen slow-motion video of occupants of a vehicle in a head-on type collision? At the instant of collision, there is very little force acting on the body. You'll see it start to slide forward off of the seat, until it is stopped by something. That can be the seat belt, the air bag, the dashboard, the windshield...
One of the main things that both seat belts and airbags do is to slow down the deceleration to something that your body can (hopefully) tolerate. You can easily survive a deceleration of hundreds of thousands of feet per second, if it's stretched out over enough time.
I am not a fan of the way that even the smallest and "lightest" of today's cars weigh 3000 lbs. But I do think that airbags, and most especially seat belts, are Very Very Good Things Indeed.
...BTW, I noticed you mentioned five-point belts. You do understand that those are designed to work specifically with racing-type seats (lots of bolstering plus built-in gaps for the belts) and with the assumption that the car has at least a roll bar, if not a full cage, right? I know a number of track-day outfits that will not allow five-point restraints unless the car also has racing seats and a roll bar. There are good reasons for that...
-soD