Passive occupant shoulder belt

In combination with a vehicle body having a roof and an occupant seat, a passive restraint system comprising:

• a shoulder belt having an upper end mounted on the roof at one side of the seat and a lower end mounted on the body at the other side of the seat;
• a stiffening means associated with the upper end portion of the shoulder belt;
• pivot means acting between the stiffening means and the vehicle roof to mount the stiffening means for pivotal movement between a normal depending position disposing the shoulder belt in restraining position across the occupant and a horizontally raised position;
• a track extending longitudinally along the roof forwardly from the pivot means;
• a belt carriage movable along the track and having a belt engaging means thereon adapted to engage the stiffening means during the initial forward movement of the carriage from a normal position rearward the pivot means to abruptly pivot the stiffening means from the depending position to the horizontally raised position and thereby abruptly raise the shoulder belt forwardly of the occupant.

In combination with a vehicle body having a roof, a door, a floor, and an occupant seat, a passive occupant restraint system comprising:

• a continuous-loop belt having an upper end attached to the vehicle roof inboard the occupant seat and a lower end attached to the vehicle floor inboard the occupant seat;
• a retractor mounted on the vehicle door;
• a control belt mounted by the door-mounted retractor and connected to the continuous-loop belt to divide the loop belt into a lap belt portion disposed in restraining position across the occupant lap and a shoulder belt portion disposed in diagonal restraining position across the upper torso;
• a track extending longitudinally along the roof forwardly from the upper end of the continuous-loop belt;
• a belt carriage movable along the track and having a belt-engaging means thereon adapted to progressively engage and stow the shoulder belt along the roof during forward movement of the belt carriage along the track;
• and
• belt stiffening means associated with the uppermost portion of the upper belt end and adapted to abruptly pivot forward and thereby raise the stiffened shoulder belt portion from the diagonal restraining position to the stowed position along the roof immediately upon initiation of forward movement of the belt carriage along the track.