Buckles – buttons – clasps – etc. – Separable-fastener or required component thereof – Including member having distinct formations and mating...
Reexamination Certificate
2003-04-24
2004-08-03
Sakran, Victor (Department: 3677)
Buckles, buttons, clasps, etc.
Separable-fastener or required component thereof
Including member having distinct formations and mating...
C024S173000, C024S437000, C024S573110, C024S579110, C024S634000, C070S055000, C070S063000, C220S284000, C297S468000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06769157
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle seat belts and in particular to a safety guard for covering a seat belt buckle release to prevent accidental opening of the safety belt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The release buttons for vehicle seat belts are often openly accessible on the surface of the seat belt buckles. Accidental contact of the release button opens the seat belt buckle and renders the seat belt useless in case of an accident or sudden stop. Children are prone to playing with things and also intentionally doing what they are told not to do. They can easily release a seat belt in play endangering their own lives or the lives of siblings or others in the vehicle including toddlers or infants in child safety seats to which the seat belt is secured.
With a seat belt opened in an accident or sudden stop a person can be thrown around in the vehicle resulting in injury or death, which would not otherwise occur if the seat belt had remained securely fastened.
Seat belts, or safety restraints, have been standard equipment on passenger vehicles for more than a generation. Under Federal law, children up to age two must now be restrained in an acceptable safety seat during any vehicular travel. Some states have extended mandatory seat belt wearing for children up to four, five, six or even nine years of age. In still other states, safety belts must now be worn by every driver and passenger regardless of age. The rationale for such laws has been repeatedly proven by statistics, namely that safety belts save lives. Safety belts are only effective at preventing injury and death as long as they remain engaged or fastened, however.
When travelling by car, most young children cannot avoid being drawn to the colorful belt and often shiny metallic buckle engaged around their waists, or around the safety seats in which they ride. For some safety seat designs, the belt buckle release mechanism is within easy reach of the child/occupant. So often, a child's hands naturally rest on or about the safety belt buckle assembly. Such hands will quickly learn how to disengage most any belt buckle without ever once witnessing another perform the same task.
Although children as old as one or two have sufficient strength and dexterity to operate the release mechanisms of most vehicular safety belts, they are not old enough to appreciate the importance of remaining fastened at all times. Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death and crippling injury for young children in this country. As many as 700 children under five die each year from injuries sustained as motor vehicle passengers. Adults cannot always maintain constant supervision over their young passengers to assure that they remained fastened in appropriate safety restraints. To do so would be a greater distraction to drivers causing even more accidents, injuries and deaths. Hence, there exists a clear need for preventing babies, toddlers and other young children from unfastening or unbuckling themselves from such safety devices.
With any safety belt cover or guard design, there is no need to raise concerns about the operation of hidden or tricky release mechanisms by emergency medical personnel. In an accident or other emergency, paramedics are now trained to cut away safety belts rather than to waste time unfastening safety restraints of various sorts.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,908, issued Dec. 23, 1969 to Lamb, discloses a cover member for use with a safety belt of the type that has a quick release lever, which when lifted outwardly from the body serves to separate the male insert from the locked engagement in the female receptacle. The cover member is designed to slidably engage and surround the female receptacle so when it is in position, it is impossible to accidentally operate the quick release lever.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,954, issued Jul. 30 1987 to Gullickson, describes a cover for a control mechanism. Activation of the control with the cover in place requires more strength than a child has; thus a child cannot, as a rule, activate the control. Concurrently, activation of the control with the cover in place does not require more strength than an adult has, so an adult can activate the control. The cover may be used over a release control on a seat belt buckle. The portion of the cover overlying the control is generally deflectable, so that an adult may activate the control through the cover. Regarding deflectability of the cover, it is rigid and stiff enough that a child may not deflect it enough to activate the control, while being simultaneously sufficiently flexible and resilient that the control may be activated by an adult by deflection of the cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,033, issued Nov. 25, 1986 to Orton, illustrates a child safety seat belt securement device that includes a housing adapted for at least partially covering the release button of a female seat belt buckle so that direct access to the release button is substantially restricted. The housing includes a mechanism for releasably securing it onto a conventional female seat belt buckle. Finally, the housing includes an actuator mechanism that is actuatable by an adult for depressing the release button of the female seat belt buckle on which the housing is secured. The same actuator mechanism is difficult, if not impossible, for a young child to operate, however, due to its complicated or multi-step operation or the force required for actuating it.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,840, issued Aug. 22, 1995 to Ewald, concerns a seat belt buckle safety sheath, which prevents the inadvertent releasing of the seat belt buckle by young children. Specifically, the seat belt buckle safety sheath is made of a resilient material and frictionally encompasses the female portion of the seat belt buckle. The resilient material of the safety sheath imposes a compressive force substantially greater than the normal force required to release the seat belt buckle from a fastened condition. Thus, an adult can compress the resilient material to activate the seat belt buckle release button, while a child will be prevented from accomplishing same.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,194, issued Mar. 5, 1985 to Morris, indicates an automobile seat belt that includes a latch tongue fixed to one belt segment and has a latching aperture, and a latch housing fixed to the other belt segment. The device also has a recess and opening at its distal end to receive the latch tongue. The tongue is automatically latched within the housing by insertion; and the tongue is released by depressing a release button through an opening in the top face of the latch housing. To render the seat belt child proof, one form of safety cover is a sleeve slipped over the latch housing, the sleeve having one end partially closed to pass the latch tongue and the sleeve having a limited access opening in one face to overlie the release button. The sleeve is retained in enclosing position on the housing by the latch tongue. The limited access opening may be a small opening only large enough to pass the tip of the ignition key to depress the release button and unfasten the belt. The limited access opening may be larger with the housing having means for retaining a child proof safety cap of the type employed for prescription and non-prescription drugs. Another form of safety cover is a band encircling the housing and enclosing the release button opening and secured to the housing in a semi-permanent manner by an adhesive. The band has a limited access opening overlying the release button, and the band itself may be sufficiently stiff to prevent depressing the button through the band, or a stiff aperture plate configured to overlie the release button and adjacent housing may be secured by means of the band. The band may be secured to the housing by a releasable fastening system other than an adhesive cement.
U.S. Pat. 4,939,824, issued Jul. 10, 1990 to Reed, claims a cover for vehicle safety belt buckles for preventing opening of a vehicle safety belt by young children or the like. The cove
Meeker Donald W.
Sakran Victor
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