Here’s What the Loop on Your Seat Belt Is For

Whether your a car comes with luxury leather or durable fabric designed to withstand your dog, there’s a good chance it features fabric loops on the seat belts. Unlike your sleek infotainment center, this isn’t about looks. So what is the loop on a seat belt for? 

You’ll spot this popular car feature across brands, and it serves a very specific purpose. You’ve probably never given it much thought, but should you ever need it, you’ll be thankful it’s around.   

We turned to auto experts to find out exactly what the loop on a seat belt is for. Read on to learn why some seat belts have this feature, how it keeps you safe and the new leaps in seat belt safety in the automotive industry. 

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What is the loop on a seat belt for?

According to Jake McKenzie, the content manager of Genuine Parts Company, which produces automotive parts, the fabric loop is called an energy management loop, and it appears on passenger seat belts. (It’s notably missing on driver seat belts—more on that in a bit.) 

The loop serves two integral safety functions: 

It reduces impact

If you’re unlucky enough to be in a crash, the loop can keep you safer. “It’s designed to rip under intense stress,” says McKenzie. “By ripping, it can cushion the blow of a collision by a few inches and help keep the passenger safe.” 

In other words, when the loop rips, you’re left with extra inches of seat belt that effectively reduce the impact force and ultimately stop your seat belt from ripping completely. That helps prevent passenger injuries. 

It keeps the buckle in position

A spokesperson for Infiniti Tracking, an automotive company that specializes in vehicle tracking, told Reader’s Digest that there’s an additional purpose for a seat belt’s fabric loop: It keeps the buckle of the belt from hitting the side of the car time and again as the car moves. It also keeps the buckle at a convenient height for use, stopping it from falling down the seat belt and ending up on the floor. 

Since we’ve all had to deal with the annoyance of something rattling around in a place we can’t get to as we’re driving, this makes sense. 

Why is there no loop on the driver’s side?

Alaina DiGiacomo/rd.com

The driver’s seat belt usually lacks a fabric loop for two reasons: safety and practicality.

It keeps the driver safe

While the loop on passenger seat belts enhances passenger safety, the lack of it on the driver’s seat belt is actually to keep drivers safe, as McKenzie explains. 

“On the driver’s side, it’s even more essential to keep the driver secured because hitting your head on the steering wheel could be fatal,” he says. “The energy-management loop is absent from the driver’s side because every millimeter matters in the event of a serious collision.” 

If the driver’s seat belt were to gain an extra few inches in a car crash, it would put the driver at a higher risk of injury due to what is known as submarining (when a strong collision causes the passenger to slide under the lap portion of the belt and exposes them to potential abdominal injuries). 

It’s practical

Seat belt design isn’t only about safety, though that’s the No. 1 concern. But there are functional elements to your car’s belts. Just as the fabric loop on a passenger seat belt keeps the buckle from sliding down the belt, a little button on the driver’s seat belt keeps the buckle from slipping down to the floor.

As for the issue of the buckle annoyingly hitting against the car? That’s not an issue on the driver’s side. When the car is moving, the driver is supposed to be buckled in, according to the spokesperson for Infiniti Tracking. There’s no point in preventing it from hitting the side of the car.

Do all cars have a loop on their seat belts?

The fabric loop feature doesn’t exist in every car. The Toyota Prius, for example, has buttons below the buckle on each of the four seat belts. And no, that doesn’t mean it’s a dangerous vehicle! In fact, it still has a five-out-of-five-star safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Other manufacturers that have moved away from using these fabric loops include GM and Honda.  

Are seat belts with loops safer?

Not finding fabric loops on your car’s seat belts isn’t necessarily a cause for concern—especially if you drive a new make and model. Although fabric loops are still quite commonly used, more and more car brands have started featuring newer safety technology in their recent models.

The downside of seat belt loops

While energy management loops were originally developed to tackle a crucial car safety issue—reducing impact in the event of a collision—they have some drawbacks. Seat belt loops do reduce the chances of head injuries, but they also pose a risk of more frequent (and serious) abdominal injuries caused by increased unwanted slack in some cases. 

The 1980s saw the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration raise concerns about the use of seat belt loops and their associated risks for occupant safety. It eventually ruled that all manual seat belts must undergo dynamic testing.

Today’s alternative to seat belt loops

The decades that followed have seen car manufacturers increasingly phase out the fabric loops in favor of newer seat belt designs that have the same functionality but with more effective and safer restraints. 

These new design developments include pretensioners that tighten the belt during a crash, holding you in place, and load limiters that offer a little extra slack on the belt, as needed, to reduce the force on your body in a collision. 

The bottom line

You can worry all you want about what the loop on a seat belt is for or why your belt has other features, but if safety is your No. 1 concern, there’s one thing you can do that’s more important than everything else: Wear your seat belt. So before you hit the gas, buckle up.

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Sources:

• Jake McKenzie, lead content analyst for Genuine Parts Company
• Automotive spokesperson for Infiniti Tracking
• World Toyota: “Award-Winning Safety”

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