Editing Seat belt (section)

== Homologation and testing ==
[[File:Seatbelt testing apparatus.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|A test apparatus with a crash test dummy]]

Starting in 1971 and ending in 1972, the United States conducted a research project on seat belt effectiveness on a total of 40,000 vehicle occupants using car accident reports collected during that time. Of these 40,000 occupants, 18% were reported wearing lap belts, or two-point safety belts, 2% were reported wearing a three-point safety belt, and the remaining 80% were reported as wearing no safety belt. The results concluded that users of the two-point lap belt had a 73% lower fatality rate, a 53% lower serious injury rate, and a 38% lower injury rate than the occupants that were reported unrestrained. Similarly, users of the three-point safety belt had a 60% lower serious injury rate and a 41% lower rate of all other injuries. Out of the 2% described as wearing a three-point safety belt, no fatalities were reported.<ref name="roadsafetyobservatory1">{{cite web |title=Seat Belts, How Effectiive? |work=Road Safety Observatory - UK |url= http://www.roadsafetyobservatory.com/HowEffective/vehicles/seat-belts |access-date=6 September 2020 |archive-date=22 July 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200722222648/https://www.roadsafetyobservatory.com/HowEffective/vehicles/seat-belts |url-status=dead }}</ref>

This study and others led to the Restraint Systems Evaluation Program (RSEP), started by the NHTSA in 1975 to increase the reliability and authenticity of past studies. A study as part of this program used data taken from 15,000 tow-away accidents that involved only car models made between 1973 and 1975. The study found that for injuries considered “moderate” or worse, individuals wearing a three-point safety belt had a 56.5% lower injury rate than those wearing no safety belt. The study also concluded that the effectiveness of the safety belt did not differ with the size of a car.<ref name="roadsafetyobservatory1"/> It was determined that the variation among results of the many studies conducted in the 1960s and 70s was due to the use of different methodologies, and could not be attributed to any significant variation in the effectiveness of safety belts.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Robertson |first=L.S. |title=Estimates of Motor Vehicle Seat Belt Effectiveness and Use: Implications for Occupant Crash Protection |journal=American Journal of Public Health |date=September 1976 |volume=66 |issue=9 |pages=859–864 |doi=10.2105/ajph.66.9.859 |pmid=961954 |pmc=1653464}}</ref>

[[Wayne State University]]'s Automotive Safety Research Group, as well as other researchers,<ref>{{cite web |title=Automotive Safety Research Group-Office of the Vice President for Research- Division of Research |url= http://research.wayne.edu/about/Auto_Safety_Research.php |access-date=25 March 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160512165739/http://research.wayne.edu/about/Auto_Safety_Research.php |archive-date=12 May 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> are testing ways to improve seat belt effectiveness and general vehicle safety apparatuses. Wayne State's Bioengineering Center uses human [[cadavers]] in their crash test research. The center's director, Albert King, wrote in 1995 that the vehicle safety improvements made possible since 1987 by the use of cadavers in research had saved nearly 8,500 lives each year, and indicated that improvements made to three-point safety belts save an average of 61 lives every year.<ref>{{cite book |last=Roach |first=Mary |title=Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers |date=2003 |publisher=Norton |isbn=9780393324822}}</ref>

The [[New Car Assessment Program]] (NCAP) was put in place by the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1979. The NCAP is a government program that evaluates vehicle safety designs and sets standards for foreign and domestic automobile companies. The agency developed a rating system and requires access to safety test results. {{As of |2007 |09}}, manufacturers are required to place an NCAP star rating on the automobile price sticker.<ref>{{cite web |title=New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) |url=https://federalregister.gov/a/2013-07766 |work=Federal Register |author=National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) |author2=Department of Transportation (DOT) |date=April 5, 2013 |access-date=25 March 2016}}</ref>

In 2004, The European New Car Assessment Program ([[Euro NCAP]]), started testing seat belts and whiplash safety on all test cars at the Thatcham Research Centre with crash test dummies.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}