Innovative Gadget Prevent Kids From Releasing Car Safety Belt

Anthony Fontanelle
February 9, 2007

Approaching the National Child Passenger Safety Week, one new device dubbed as the Angelguard was introduced in an effort to keep young children strapped safely to their car seats. The device is aimed to prevent young children from accidentally releasing the safety belt buckle to reduce the risk of major injury or even death of kids during collisions.

You may strap your little one in a child seatbelt such an act will be rendered useless when these little tots could accidentally release them from their safety locks. Kids not safely strapped on their car seats can be easily thrown around the rear of the car or even into the front seats of a car during violent crashes. This may lead to severe injury to a child or even death.

To address the problem of seat belt buckle being released accidentally by kids, Patricia Mandarino spent a year in developing a gadget that will prevent kids from doing so. Her effort to create such a device that will keep kids secure in their seat is due to her observations when her three-year old daughter finds it easy to unfasten her safety belt. She also discovered that almost every parent faces the same problem.

Mandarino looked for devices in stores that will address the problem but her search was in vain. The realization was that there are no available products in the market that will prevent small children from unfastening their safety belts, made her devote time to design a way to prevent such occurrences.

The result of her labor is a simple product that slips into place over the safety belt release button thus making it hard for children to unfasten their seatbelts even if they do so intentionally. The product is constructed out of a strong type of plastic and can be easily used by adults. The simplicity of the device belies the great help it provides to parents in keeping their precious cargoes safely secured on their seats.

The introduction of such a gadget will further improve car safety for children onboard and inside a car. This also gives parents that certain peace of mind knowing that their kids cannot accidentally or intentionally unfasten their safety belts.

The arrival of a gadget such as the Angelguard will surely be welcomed by parents. Especially with the fact recently discovered by a study that shows one-third of its respondents said that their child (or children) has unfastened their seatbelts. As a matter of fact, many of the respondents in the said study stated that their children managed to unfasten their safety belts not just once but they actually do so frequently. Add to that the fact that traffic crashes are the foremost cause of child death from ages three upward. This figure comes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Arrival of the said safety device comes on the heels of other breakthroughs in child car safety like the ones employed on the Volvo V70.

In a time where awareness for child safety is emphasized, such a product as the Angelguard will indeed be welcomed. When great brake components like the EBC Greenstuff brake parts are not enough to protect a vehicle from crashes, additional safety devices are needed to improve the safety of a car’s occupants. The call for increase safety features is already being answered not only by large companies but also by individuals and this can only be good for the cause of protecting motorists. If more innovation like this comes out in the near future, it will be a good step forward for car safety. Consumers can expect cars being safer and safer for their children thanks to individuals such as Mandarino and companies like Volvo that continually pushes the envelope in car safety issues.

Source: Amazines.com