Seatbelt Design – Ejection

Our client’s wife was killed when she was ejected from the motor vehicle she was operating went off the road and subsequently crashed. We claimed that she was wearing her seatbelt but because the belt was attached to the door, and not the door frame, when the door opened it extended the belt so that she was, in effect, no longer restrained by it. We argued that to have the belt attached to the door was a defective design because of the risk of ejection even when belted once the door opened.