Abstract: A child seat adapted for use in a vehicle, the child seat comprising: a shell portion; a harness for securing a child to the child seat, the harness comprising adjustable harness tether(s) secured to the shell portion at one end and having a latch plate at the other, the latch plate being configured to releasably engage a buckle of the harness; a tension sensor(s) for providing a signal indicative of a tension of the adjustable harness tether(s); and an electronic control unit secured to the shell portion, the electronic control unit being operably coupled to the tension sensor(s) to receive the signal, the electronic control unit being capable of processing the signal to compare the signal to a signal indicative of a predetermined range of acceptable tension, wherein the electronic control unit provides an output indicating whether the tension of the adjustable harness tether(s) is(are) within the predetermined range.

Abstract: A seat belt restraint system includes a dual level load limiting belt retractor that has a high level load limit and a low level load limit resisting paying-out the belt when the belt retractor is locked. The belt retractor includes a mechanical load switch mechanism that is responsive to the length of belt that is payed out of the belt retractor to switch from a low level load limit to a high level load limit.

Abstract: A seat belt restraint system includes a dual level load limiting belt retractor that has a high level load limit and a low level load limit resisting paying-out the belt when the belt retractor is locked. The belt retractor includes an auxiliary load limit mechanism for assisting in the pay-out resistance when operation is changed from the high level load limit to the low level load limit.