Ford designing seatbelts to protect…the unborn

Kenneth Hynek • 7th Dec 2009 • Health, Reproduction, The Sciences, Research
Ford, Ford Edge, pregnancy, seat belts, unborn

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You know, I was never a Ford guy. I never grew up in a Ford household. But lately, Ford is looking pretty attractive. Their designs are just top-notch, and there’s a welcome consistency in the overall appearances of Ford vehicles today that some other manufacturers really seem to lack. I drove a Ford Edge on a work trip back in August, and it was a dream of a ride. Looked pretty decent, too.

Then there’s the fact that Ford hasn’t really taken much — if anything — from the Obama government’s trough; they’ve remained largely independent of government interference even during the recession, and seem to be doing better than the other two North American auto manufacturers because of it.

But this piece of news might just have me at a Ford dealership when it comes time to select a second family vehicle:

The number of unborn children lost in car accidents is relatively small compared to the estimated 40,000 people who die annually in collisions. Why is there so much effort being focused on this group?

This is actually a bigger issue than the child seat issue, which is something we are very focused on. It’s roughly four times the problem of children dying in car seats. And when you look at the 40,000 crash deaths, a lot of those are the fault of the person — they weren’t wearing a seat belt or they were drinking and driving. But if you are pregnant and get into a crash, there’s little you can do to protect your fetus.

From a design standpoint, you ask yourself, “What is the population I can help?” If someone is not wearing a seat belt, it’s hard to get them to wear it. If they’re drinking and driving, that’s another issue. But there are things we can do for people who are driving to work, wearing seat belts and getting into crashes. How do we design a better seat belt for that population? This is an area where we can make a difference.

I just love the language there. Yeah, that buzzword, “fetus,” still makes an appearance, but so does the not-exactly-tacit acknowledgement that the unborn are, basically, people, in that they are a population segment that research into safety technologies by Ford can benefit directly.

And then a population segment worth investing time, money, and energy into preserving, into saving in crash situations.

Is that nice to see? Is the Pope Catholic?

(hat tip)