Inflatable elements, bag or belt, deploying from locations adjacent vehicle occupants have been proposed and suggested to distribute belt loading during a collision (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,682,498 and 3,841,654).
Prior restraint systems have combined seat belts, including lap and shoulder components, with inflatable members. For example, vehicle air bags have been proposed to be mounted adjacent shoulder belts and lap belts for deployment upon rapid deceleration of a vehicle (U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,662). Other prior inflatable bag vehicle restraint systems have required that the bag be supported by a portion of the vehicle in front of the occupant (i.e., the dashboard or wheel post unit). Further, prior lap belt mounted bags were deployable in front of the occupant's belt and have not caused the lap belt to have its slack removed by the inflation of the bag.
Finally, it has been proposed to provide bags for inflation between the occupant and shoulder straps (U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,569).
None of the prior art proposals provide proper protection where the restraint system can only be deployable from and restrained by a lap belt area.