The Belts Have Fastened

When the old Nash Motors Co. came out with seat belts as standard equipment in 1949, customers tore them out and cut them off with razor blades. Last week, as Studebaker became the first U.S. automaker now in business to make seat belts standard equipment, no one had any fear that motorists would once more lay hold of their razors. Finally convinced by safety authorities that seat belts can prevent many traffic deaths, U.S. motorists are buying them so fast that sales have risen threefold since 1960 to $63 million last year--and this year are running at double the 1962 rate.

Fooled Once. Seat-belt makers got fooled once before, when Ford in the mid-50s began promoting seat belts, then had to give them up when the public did not respond. But this time they are convinced that the belts will hold on. Six states and the District of Columbia have already passed laws to make seat belts mandatory, and 30 more states have similar bills pending. Every auto company now offers them as optional equipment (priced from $16.80 on a Ford to $21.50 on a Cadillac). By 1965, the industry figures that seat belts will be standard equipment on all cars. California Standard's Chevron gasoline stations in the East have had such success (50,000 new charge-account customers) by selling and installing belts at $5.95 each that this year Texaco, Socony Mobil, Shell and Richfield will start selling them.

The smell of gold dust has swelled the ranks of beltmakers from eight only seven years ago to some 84 today and, as usual, the shoddy operators have appeared on the scene. One maker boasts that his belts will withstand 6,000 Ibs.' pressure, when in fact tests have shown that they snap in a 15-m.p.h. collision. To counteract such fraud, 32 leading firms have joined the American Seat Belt Council, which certifies that their belts will take a minimum 4,000 Ibs.' sudden pressure. Detroit has so far played it safe by ordering from such well-established firms as Irving Air Chute Co., Auto-Crat Manufacturing Co., General Tube Co. and American Safety Equipment Corp. Auto-Crat is so touchy about its public image that all its employees get free belts and must use them. "It would be embarrassing," says President Jim Robbins, "for a seat belt company employee to get hurt because he didn't have a seat belt on."

Unlimited Potential. Beltmakers see an almost unlimited potential for their product. So far, only 8,000,000 of the 65.5 million cars on U.S. roads have seat belts. Making them standard equipment in Detroit would add more than $114 million a year to sales--not counting the millions of auto owners who would then be inspired to install belts on their own. Beltmakers now go in for dramatic demonstrations to show the value of the seat belt, but they do not intend to stop at one or two to a car. They are already talking of urging six belts for every car, and then adding harnesses for children and shoulder straps for adults.

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