Coroner says lap seat belts worse than no belt at all

WELLINGTON - A New Zealand coroner has called for a ban on lap seat belts, often fitted in the back seats of sedans, saying they are more dangerous to the wearer in an accident than not wearing a belt at all.

Talking about accident victims seen wearing the lap belts, Bob McDermott, coroner for the North Island city of Huntly, said, “There is no polite way to put this - they are almost cut in half.”

“It’s a situation where we are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” he said.

“Do they wear nothing and end up through the windscreen, or suffer major damage to their internal organs from the force of the lap belt on impact?”

McDermott called for lap seat belts to be banned because they cause horrendous injuries or a law amendment making it compulsory for them to be fitted with a diagonal belt as well.

Regulations in New Zealand and car-making countries like the United States, Japan, Australia and members of the European Union allow lap belts to be fitted in the middle of rear seats in sedans.

Three-point lap and diagonal belts are commonly fitted in the front and the seats nearest the rear doors.

The coroner was speaking after the case of a 77-year-old grandmother whose internal organs were ruptured as the impact of a crash snapped her body around the lap belt she was wearing.

She would have been better off not wearing a seat belt at all, he said.

It is a view challenged by Land Transport New Zealand, which is responsible for the country’s road rules.

Spokesman Andy Knackstedt said a lap belt was better than none at all, particularly in a high speed crash on the open road where a victim would probably be ejected through the windscreen and onto the road.

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