Car Roll Over’ simulator will increase seat belt awareness

Car Roll Over’ simulator will increase seat belt awareness
By Joy Sengupta /KHALEEJ TIMES 26 August 2007

DUBAI — The Emirates Driving Institute has introduced the ‘Car Roll Over’ simulator to make drivers realise the importance of using seat belt as a safety measure.
The ‘Car Roll Over’ gives the students an actual feeling and the body movements of the driver when his car turns topsy turvy in an accident, Muhammed Arif, the Advance Driving Instructor and First Lecturer of the Institute, said yesterday.

“The apparatus would also make the people realise the fact that people inside the car have got more chances of survival if they have fastened their seats belts as it holds them tight to the seat in the case of an accident resulting in the car roll over,” he said.

“There are many organsations who have been talking about the importance of seat belts since a long time now. Fines have also been imposed on the violators. But still, there are people who don’t care. A majority of them don’t understand the importance of seat belts. We realised that a practical knowledge about how the belt works would be helpful,” he said. The system had been imported from Volvo, a popular commercial transport solutions based in Sweden.

“This is a whole car. We ask the person to sit in it and then fasten the seat belt. Then we revolve the car upside down. One can easily feel the pressure on the back and the neck when the car is turning,” Arif said.

“But then if one is fastened, the belt does not allow the person to crash out through the windscreen or get thrown in some other corner of the car. This considerably reduces the risk. Also, the air bag coming out from the front after the crash is beneficial only if you are fastened. This apparatus would indeed make people realise the importance of seat belts,” he added.

The official stated that another apparatus, called the ‘Seat Belt Convensor’ was also useful in making people aware. “In this, we try to make people know the kind of impact the car has when it hits something. It is again the seatbelt which does not let the person move out of the seat. Otherwise he can crash out of the car through the windscreen,” pointed Arif.

The official said that soon they would be opening these machines for the common people. “Anyone would be free to come down to the centre and experience this. People should know about the importance of seat belts. Seat belts are life savers,” he emphasised.