Passive safety belt arrangement for vehicles

Claim 1

A passive safety belt arrangement for vehicles, for example, passenger automobiles, including a safety belt articulately connected to a slide; a slide-positioning device for shifting the slide within a guide fastened to the frame of the vehicle in the region of a door opening located in the vicinity of a vehicle seat, said shifting taking place between an off position in which the safety belt is raised away from the body of a passenger in said seat and a restraining position which brings the safety belt in contact with the passenger's body roughly at the height of his shoulders, within the range of the restraining position the guide runs essentially vertically along a doorpost; and a locking mechanism that, when the belt is in the restraining position, secures the slide against motion that would release it from that position, characterized in that: the slide-positioning device comprises a flexible rack made of a cable surrounded by a cover located over most of its longitudinal extent, an end of said cable being free of the cover so as to accomodate the slide in slidable fashion on that end; and said locking mechanism comprises a swiveling locking pawl acted upon by a spring so as to urge it in the direction of engagement with said slide, said locking pawl having a cam-like projection which rests against the end of the cable which is free of the cover whenever the slide is in the restraining position, said projection being acted on by the cover of said slide-positioning device so as to swivel the locking pawl out of engagement with said slide upon movement of the flexible rack.