Abstract: A seat having a seat frame with a seat back designed to prevent injuries to a rear occupant seated behind the seat as the rear occupant moves forward into the seat back during a frontal crash of a vehicle, the seat including a seat back frame part designed to support the back of any occupant but which can rotate during a crash as a rear occupant moves forward into the seat back, the invention including at least one energy absorbing assembly to control the rotary motion of the rotating seat frame part, the rotating frame part maintained in a non-rotating state by an articulating or breakable pin which when moved or broken permits the frame part to rotate as the rear occupant engages the seat frame in response to a frontal vehicular crash.

Abstract: A seat having a seat frame with a seat back designed to prevent injuries to a rear occupant seated behind the seat as the rear occupant moves forward into the seat back during a frontal crash of a vehicle, the seat including a seat back frame part designed to support the back of any occupant but which can rotate during a crash as a rear occupant moves forward into the seat back, the invention including at least one energy absorbing assembly to control the rotary motion of the rotating seat frame part, the rotating frame part maintained in a non-rotating state by an articulating or breakable pin which when moved or broken permits the frame part to rotate as the rear occupant engages the seat frame in response to a frontal vehicular crash.

Abstract: An electromechanical seat belt retractor has a seat belt retractor assembly having a spool rotationally moveable about an axis of rotation for winding and unwinding a seat belt; a motor for selectively rotating the spool; a clutch including an over-clutch driven by the motor through one or more gears; the clutch being coaxially aligned with the axis of rotation of the spool and linearly spaced from the spool; and wherein upon a forward actuation of the motor a clutch plate of the clutch linearly moves to engage the spool coupling to the spool and thereafter rotating the spool about the axis to initiate a winding of the seat belt. After the clutch plate engages the spool a reversal of the motor linearly moves the clutch plate away from the spool disengaging the spool. Preferably the clutch means is a Bendix type clutch assembly. In a preferred embodiment, the clutch plate first engages an over-clutch is fixed in a locking engagement to the spool.