Integrated shoulder harness and lap belt restraint apparatus

Abstract

To provide effective body restraint together with rapid egress under emergency conditions, an integrated shoulder harness and lap belt restraint apparatus is disclosed having two shoulder straps of webbing attached to an upper anchor point and extended therefrom over opposite shoulders of an occupant, through shoulder strap length adjusters, and then downwardly along the sides of an occupant's upper torso to side anchors located adjacent the opposite sides of the seat pan. Each strap webbing is looped through a friction fitting at the corresponding side anchor and is then extended inwardly to a lap buckle having webbing length adjusters on each of the complementary, interconnecting buckle parts. The inwardly extending portions of the continuous lengths of webbing are first threaded through the respective adjusters on the corresponding buckle parts and are then doubled back beneath the first mentioned webbing portions so as to extend outwardly toward the opposed side anchors where the ends of the webbing portions are fixedly attached to provide a doubled webbing lap belt. The restraint apparatus is snugged by fastening the lap buckle and then pulling outwardly on the first lap belt webbing portions until the underlying webbing portions are tensioned about the lap. Then the shoulder strap adjusters are tightened to take up any slack in the first portions of webbing by pulling the slack through the friction fittings on the side anchors. For quick egress, the lap buckle is released to free the pelvis and at the same time create sufficient slack in the shoulder harness to free the shoulders by slippage of the continuous lengths of webbing through the side anchor fittings.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.