RV seat belt safety

msmith1199 wrote:

Executive wrote:
2. Second Best Alternative
Drive the child in a passenger vehicle so they can be properly restrained and follow the RV (Class A, B or C's) .

This one has me shaking my head....someone will read this and secure their child in a seatbelt in their toad....:E......Dennis

I'd question their implication here. Is a smaller vehicle really safer? I don't disagree that if you roll your RV or drive it head on into a bridge pillar that you are in trouble. But how many RV accidents happen like that? I would argue that the vast majority of accidents involving RV's involve the RV impacting smaller cars and in the vast majority of those crashes the RV gets the better end of the deal. It's the very same concept as drivers of 3/4 ton trucks and Suburban's often come out way better in most accidents because they're usually running into something smaller than they are.

I agree with you. This has been my line of thinking ... the odds are the RV would be in a collision with a much smaller vehicle and fare much better.

I had a conversation with a friend who used to design school buses. He said you will notice that the bus portion is attached to the frame via "clips" - designed to slide and use friction etc to take up the force of impact, as usually the chassis is what takes the direct hit. Thus the occupants have a few design "mechanisms" to absorb the crash energy, vs being rigidly belted in attached to the frame for example.

Makes me want to check into my future MH house construction out of curiosity...