What are the main safety concerns and issues for someone seated in a wheelchair while in a motor vehicle?
First, let’s think about some of the primary occupant-protection features that are used in family vehicles, i.e. cars, vans and SUVs. The seats are firmly anchored to the vehicle floor, and they are designed without rigid sharp edges that could cause injury. The seats are also designed and dynamically tested to ensure that they will provide effective support for the occupant. A properly designed three-point belt restraint will provide effective upper and lower torso restraint by applying forces to the skeletal structures of the body. The vehicle seat and belt restraint system work together to prevent occupant ejection and minimize the potential for occupant contact with the vehicle interior, which causes injury. Since the early 1990s, all passenger vehicles have been equipped with airbag restraints that deploy rapidly in frontal crashes to provide additional protection to the heads, faces, necks, and chests of front-seat occupants. In this way, the seat and occupant restraints (belts p
