Seat belt apparatus

A seat belt apparatus comprising:

• a webbing reel capable of taking up a webbing;
• an electric motor connected to the webbing reel via a transmission mechanism;
• a clutch member movable between a connecting position for keeping the electric motor and the webbing reel in a mutually connected state and a disconnecting position for keeping the electric motor and the webbing reel in a mutually disconnected state;
• a belt reacher not only pivotable in a forward direction of a vehicle by means of a biasing member but also pivotable in a rearward direction of the vehicle to a stored position in response to taking-up of the webbing;
• a door opening/closing detection section for detecting opening and closing of a door of the vehicle;
• a seat-belt wearing detection section for detecting wearing, by a vehicle occupant, of the webbing;
• and
• a motor control section for controlling the electric motor,
• wherein, once a change from an opened state to a closed state of the door is detected by the door opening/closing detection section, the motor control section controls the electric motor so that the webbing is pulled out from the webbing reel at a predetermined speed,
• wherein, once the wearing of the webbing is detected by the seat-belt wearing detection section while the webbing is being pulled out at the predetermined speed, the control section controls the electric motor to stop pulling-out of the webbing, and
• wherein the predetermined speed is kept at a constant speed for a predetermined initial time period and then caused to gradually decrease from the constant speed.