I Was Wearing My Seat Belt - Honestly! How To Prove That Your Client Was Belted
How often have you, as an attorney, been confronted with the issue whether or not your client was seat belted at the time of the accident giving rise to his or her injuries? Probably more often then you would like. Very often, a crashworthiness case is dependent upon proof that the injured victim was seat belted. Some crashworthiness cases should only be pursued if, in truth, the victim was seat belted. And, of course, many cases rely upon the poor performance of the seat belt as the defect claim. Some of the types of cases which may be dependent on seat belt usage are categorized below.
While the intent of this paper is to account for the methods available to prove restraint usage, we will briefly summarize the importance of seat belt usage in these four accident modes.
Frontal and Frontal Offset Collisions
- Seat belt usage dictates the manner by which the occupant's motion is controlled.
- Absent controlled deceleration, violent head (indirect neck loading) or thoracic loading occurs.
- Poor seat belt performance causes violent head contact and/or chest loading.
Rollover Accidents
- During a rollover, the occupant moves toward the ground, roof or out the window.
- Absent good vertical/side-to-side restraint, head contact within or outside the vehicle at contact velocities in excess of 7mph can cause head and neck injury.
- Poor seat belt performance causes excessive vertical and side-to-side impact of the head.
Far Side Impacts
- During impact, the occupant moves toward the struck side.
- Absent good upper torso restraint (e.g., close contact and loading of the shoulder), the occupant's head and upper torso swings toward the intruding vehicle or structure and makes violent contact.
- Poor seat belt performance causes excessive side-to-side movement of the head and upper torso.
Rear Impacts
- During impact, the occupant "moves" rearward and can lift off the seat and into the rear occupant section.
- Absent good lower torso restraint, the occupant slides or ramps up the seat back or between the two front seat backs.
- Poor seat belt performance causes excessive rear excursion.
Why are some motorists reported unrestrained when they are not?
Typically, what happens is either the injured party, another person in the vehicle, a passerby or good samaritan unbuckles the victim before police and/or rescue personnel arrive on the scene. It is also possible to have an inadvertent buckle release under certain conditions. Often, in the excitement of attending to a seriously injured victim or investigating a major accident, official personnel observe victims at the scene unbelted and merely record that fact. When that occurs, or when hospital personnel make entries in a patient's chart that he or she was unbelted—because they observe the patient has certain kinds of injuries that they assume could not have resulted if the patient were belted—problems of proof arise.
Under these circumstances, it is very likely that the defendant vehicle manufacturer will assert that your client was not restrained and, therefore, there cannot be a seat belt performance defect claim and/or your client was causally negligent.
While it may seem elementary to simply plan to have your client testify that he was seat belted and rely upon that testimony to prove this critical issue, that approach may not work, because the client may have no memory of wearing the seat belt due to his/her injury or he/she may not be credible. Even when credibility is not seemingly an issue, the defense may still mount a formidable challenge to this assertion. Thus, you need to think of the assorted means available to prove seat belt usage.
The following lists various means available to litigants to assist in proving, directly and by circumstantial evidence, that the victim was seat belted.
Evidence |
Witness/Relevant Notations |
Meaning |
Defendant's Response |
| Client/Witness Testimony of Belt Usage/Habit and Usage at the Time of Trial |
Client and others in the vehicle |
Verification |
Lacks Credibility |
| Independent Witness Testimony |
Passerby, eyewitnesses who confirm belt usage |
Verification of client's version |
Lack of memory or ignored in defense - which will use "technical findings" on belt to defend |
| Police Report |
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| Ambulance Record |
Reference to external evidence of belt usage: bruising, abrasions, cuts where the belt would pass |
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| Emergency Room Record |
Nurses and physicians reference bruising patterns |
Establishes consistency |
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| Medical Records |
Bruising, statements of victim, rib fractures over seat belt region |
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| Seat Belt Markings |
Generally, compare marks with other belts in car or in other cars that you can prove with certainty were being worn at time of wreck |
Establish patterns of loading |
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| Seat Belt Components |
Retractor - look at teech and locking bar.
Latch Plate - markings from interaction with webbing
D-Ring - "burning" or bolt deformation
Belt Webbing - twisting, marking, stretching and/or abraiding |
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| Was the Seat Belt Cut in Extrication? |
Location on belt and reason for cutting it |
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| Damage or Absence of Damage Inside the Vehicle |
Little or no evidence of loading to the windshield, instrument panel and/or steering wheel |
Belted in some fashion |
Out of position |
| Physical Bruising or Lacerations on the Body |
Indicates some seat belt loading. Use existing photographs, witness and medical accounts. |
Seat belt loading and therefore usage |
Interior vehicle contact, not belt loading |
| Injury Mechanics |
Some types of neck injuries require head flexion, which typically requires deceleration of the upper torso and lowering forward of the head and impact tot he top of the head. |
Only occurs when the shoulder belt provides some deceleration |
Change the mechanics of the injury |
| Crash Tests |
Shows what is expected when belted |
Correlate with what happened in the accident |
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What methodology works best to prove seat belt usage?
- Eyewitness accounts
- Photographs at scene
- Medical witnesses detailing bruising
- Photographs of client's bruising
- Photographs of seat belt marks compared to other belts in vehicle
- DYNAMAN and/or MADYMO
- Crash and sled tests
Jurors are very cynical these days. They want to find some excuse to find against a plaintiff. They seem to believe that injured people are blaming too many others for their own misfortune. We need to right that wrong. Jurors want to believe people who are injured will distort the truth to win. That starts with seat belt usage. We need to find as many independent means as is possible to set that bias straight. Do not take this topic too lightly. Come at it in as many different persuasive directions as you can develop. If you cannot prove seat belt usage, the chances of prevailing are terribly remote.
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