Seatbelts
- Thread starter Warp Zero
- Start date
I must have known a lot of people driving old cars back in the 70s. I remember numerous cars when I was a kid that had no belts. Many people who bought new cars just stuffed the belts in between the cushions of the couch seats. 
Ford offered front and rear lap belts as part of its "Lifeguard Design" safety package in the mid-1950s, but it wasn't a popular option. Most people at the time associated seat belts with airplanes.
There's also the bunk beds in STVI.
(Probably my favourit Star Trek movie, but that's one of its flaws.)You can't compare the Enterpise with a car or a bus. You can't stand in a car and it's not easy to walk inside a moving bus.
There's always people walking or standing as they were into an immobile structure on Earth.
Here is my in-universe answer.
We really don't see delays in inertial dampening per say. If I'm going from a million miles an hour and the inertial dampener cancels out 99 percent of that--that's still enough to kill--so I'll call the effect inertial coupling (handwavium)
The idea is this--there is still a bit of internal lag inside the ship as the deck plates compensate for gravity (the dampeners themselves are instantaneous).
It was learned that crewmen who were strapped in actually had a slightly higher rate of back injuries that might prevent them from getting to a console in an emergency (eyes out acceleration)
Those thrown from semi-cupping non bolted seats were actually shown to be injured less--similar to the events in Contact where the seat actually worsened Jodi Foster's ride.
By the time the occupant was thrown from the seat in free flight above the deck, it allowed time for the deck fields to compensate properly, and some to gain their footing, allowing quicker access to controls if need be. Most injuries were done to joints, extremities--not backs.
Such counter-intuitive examples still influence starship seating designs, which vary.
We really don't see delays in inertial dampening per say. If I'm going from a million miles an hour and the inertial dampener cancels out 99 percent of that--that's still enough to kill--so I'll call the effect inertial coupling (handwavium)
The idea is this--there is still a bit of internal lag inside the ship as the deck plates compensate for gravity (the dampeners themselves are instantaneous).
It was learned that crewmen who were strapped in actually had a slightly higher rate of back injuries that might prevent them from getting to a console in an emergency (eyes out acceleration)
Those thrown from semi-cupping non bolted seats were actually shown to be injured less--similar to the events in Contact where the seat actually worsened Jodi Foster's ride.
By the time the occupant was thrown from the seat in free flight above the deck, it allowed time for the deck fields to compensate properly, and some to gain their footing, allowing quicker access to controls if need be. Most injuries were done to joints, extremities--not backs.
Such counter-intuitive examples still influence starship seating designs, which vary.
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