Inflation mechanism for inflatable seat belt

An apparatus for helping to protect a vehicle occupant, comprising:

• a vehicle seat belt system including a buckle and a tongue assembly, said buckle and said tongue assembly having a buckled condition and an unbuckled condition, said seat belt system also including an inflatable seat belt portion;
• an actuatable inflator;
• a conduit for directing inflation fluid from said inflator to said inflatable seat belt portion to inflate said inflatable seat belt portion;
• a sensor for indicating whether said buckle and said tongue assembly are in the buckled condition or the unbuckled condition;
• means responsive to said sensor for selectively directing inflation fluid from said inflator through said conduit into said inflatable seat belt portion when said buckle and said tongue assembly are in the buckled condition, to help protect the vehicle occupant;
• and
• a vent for venting inflation fluid from said conduit upon actuation of said inflator when said buckle and said tongue assembly are in the unbuckled condition, to help prevent inflation fluid from flowing through said conduit into the vehicle occupant compartment in a direction toward the vehicle occupant.

An apparatus for helping to protect a vehicle occupant, comprising:

• a vehicle seat belt system including a tongue assembly and a buckle, said tongue assembly and said buckle having a buckled condition in which a first latch part on said tongue assembly is engaged with a second latch part on said buckle to resist movement of said tongue assembly away from said buckle;
• an inflatable seat belt portion connected with said tongue assembly;
• an inflation mechanism connected with said buckle, including an actuatable inflator;
• a conduit for directing inflation fluid from said inflator to said inflatable seat belt portion to inflate said inflatable seat belt portion;
• and
• a third latch part on said tongue assembly engageable with a fourth latch part on said inflation mechanism to help resist movement of said tongue assembly away from said buckle when said seat belt system is in the buckled condition and said inflator is actuated.