Abstract: An emergency lock safety belt retractor is designed to facilitate release from an inadvertent lock-up which may occur after full-speed retraction of the seat belt. This undesired lock-up is due to a latch mechanism which locks a belt spool in response to either excessively abrupt onset of extraction, such as may occur in front-end automotive accidents, or excessively abrupt cessation of retraction. This latch mechanism has two separate latches: a simple latch pawl biased away from its latched position and a more complicated lock wheel. The latch pawl is mounted on a rotary drum and in its latched position engages teeth on a stationary drum. The lock wheel is coupled for rotation with the belt spool but is free to move axially through three regimes. The lock wheel is biased toward a first axial regime in which it couples the rotary drum to the belt spool.