Five-point seat belt: device, fastening, principle of operation, purpose

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

One of the main criteria for choosing children's products is safety. It is important to remember this on the road, on a walk with a stroller, and even seating the child in a high chair. It is necessary to carefully approach the choice of means of protecting the child. Why should you pay attention to the five-point seat belt? If only because even in sports cars this driver protection is installed. After all, such belts allow you to evenly distribute the load when tensioned and securely fix the human body in the chair.

Destination

The five-point seat belt is a passive protection against the dangerous movement of a child when traveling by car, while walking in a stroller or while feeding on a special chair. These seat belts are suitable for children up to 3-4 years old (group 0, 0+ and 1+ car seats are used), then theybecome small and the child car seat is fixed with normal car belts.

Device

The five-point harness consists of two shoulder straps, two leg straps and one strap that goes between the legs. That's where its name comes from. The 5-point harness buckle always locks securely as kids love to play with it and try to open it. The shoulder straps are most often worn with additional softening pads to protect the small passenger's neck from injury and chafing.

In addition, often the car seat belt buckle is equipped with soft upholstery, which will soften the pressure of the buckle on the child's stomach or groin. All soft pads can also be purchased separately if they were not included in the package of the children's product. The five-point seat belt for a highchair and stroller is often thinner and less secure than a car seat.

Operation principle

The load of such belts in the event of a collision is distributed to the strongest parts of the child's body - shoulders, hips and pelvis. As you know, in the event of a collision, the human body is subject to inertia. In cases with three-point seat belts, it is difficult to guarantee reliable protection. That is why five-point safety belts are used for children, which completely fix the child's body and prevent him from slipping out of the child car seat. Fixation of strong body parts avoids serious injuries and consequencesaccident or sudden braking. It is important to remember that it is undesirable to use a car seat after an accident, it must be replaced with a new one.

Stroller seat belts help prevent an active baby from falling out while walking. Fixing the baby in the highchair will give the person feeding him the opportunity to move away or be distracted for a while, without fear that the baby will slip out of the high structure.

Mount

In a child car seat, fastening five-point belts is quite simple - the shoulder belts pass through special holes in the chair and are fastened from the back of the back with a special metal or plastic hook. The leg straps also pass through the holes in the seat and are held in hooks on the underside of the car seat. The tension strap that runs between the child's legs runs under the seat and is attached to one hook along with the shoulder straps. Each belt must be adjusted separately for the child, and also do not forget about his clothes - in the autumn-winter period, it may be necessary to loosen the belts so that the child is comfortable.

Stroller and highchair seat belts can also be adjusted to fit your child, lengthening or shortening them, or changing them to thicker, softer or more secure locks. Changing the belt is the same as in the car.

Car seat: fastening and installation

In addition to properly adjusted seat belts, the child car seat must havesecure fit in the car. It can be done in several ways:

• standard three-point seat belts of the car;
• Isofix;
• installing an additional base for the car seat, which in turn is fixed with regular straps or Isofix mount.

Fastening with regular seat belts is a universal way to fix a car seat. Despite the convenience, this method also has its drawbacks - this procedure is somewhat complicated and inconvenient, in addition, there is a possibility of incorrect or insufficiently strong fixation of the chair. Sometimes in situations involving a car seat of groups 0 and 0+, regular belts may not be enough for its full girth. In this case, it is necessary to replace the standard belts in the car dealership with longer ones, without increasing the length of the belt with your own hands. Fixing the car seat and the child with regular seat belts is necessary for children over 3 years old (from 18 kg), since not all car seats of the older groups have a five-point seat belt.

Isofix mount

This method was developed and standardized in Europe in the 90s and has since gained popularity due to its simplicity and reliability. The Isofix car seat has the main advantage - in addition to the five-point seat belts, it is securely fixed to the car seat.

The whole system is divided into two parts: car and chair. The car uses two metal brackets that are installed at a standard distance280 mm apart in the rear seat back at the passenger seating areas. Most often, these places are marked with the inscription Isofix and sometimes with a picture of a child in a car seat. The car seat, on the other hand, has two rigid rails with a fixation mechanism in brackets.

This mount is quite simple and allows you to securely install the seat in the car without fear of error. After all, two characteristic clicks will make it clear that the car seat mount is securely fixed. Recently, a third attachment point has been used to fix the upper part and avoid a dangerous forward lean. It is also called the "anchor" belt. It attaches from the top of the car seat back to a brace that can be located on the car's rear shelf, on the trunk floor, or in any other rear area. The Isofix car seat will fit any car that has system attachment points.

An alternative to five-point harnesses

In addition to five-point seat belts, there are bumper restraint tables or buffer tables. Such a table is a soft cushion with plastic inserts, which is fastened with a regular seat belt across the child's body. This type of protection is looser and gives the child more freedom to act. It is believed that such protection is able to keep the child in the seat during an accident and not cause him injury due to its softness and elasticity. However, according to the latest crash tests, it was revealed that such tables are not able to reliably hold the child when the car is overturned, andalso do not have the ability to protect the upper body during a sharp inertial forward movement.

The benefits of five-point seat belts

Since any parent considers it necessary to take care of their child, it is important to understand that the safety of the baby must be trusted with proven and reliable means. A five-point seat belt has a number of advantages over belts with fewer anchor points:

• correct distribution of the load on the strong parts of the child's body;
• Crash mitigation due to secure fit in car seat;
• easy adjustment of the straps to the size of the child;
• soft and secure holding an active baby in the stroller and highchair;
• Easy replacement of belts in any children's product.