[WalterBright]

The seat belts are the most effective. Helmets and HANS add to that, but the belts are the #1 safety device.

Another anecdote is in order. My father was a fighter jet instructor. The usual arrangement is tandem seating. He related an incident where the jet went off the runway, the nose gear sunk into the mud and the jet went up on its nose.

The guy in back had taken off his shoulder harness while taxiing, but left the helmet and lap belt on. He hit the dash so hard it left his brains splattered all over it, despite having a helmet.

The guy in front left his shoulder harness on, and was uninjured.

My father said that after seeing that, he never unbuckled the harness until the airplane was parked and the engines shut down. He also never moved his car an inch unless everyone in it was buckled up, and this was in the early 1960's long before it was fashionable. I picked up the habit from him :-)

[david-given]

There's a reason why they don't turn off the seat belt signs on planes until the plane's at the gate and the engines are off!

[mzs]

Thank you for sharing the story.

I too think that being buckled-in is the most important, but a 4 or 5 point harness will just not work in a street car. Maybe my best advice is for you to read the relevant sections in the SCCA handbook. Forget about the cage, assume just a cross bar and harness. You will see that it makes it impossible to have the harness at a safe orientation for the driver yet allow a rear passenger. Also when you add the cross bar as it also required, it is now unsafe for a rear passenger.

Further any car with a cage has other compromises and some of those reasons for a cage are for things like being able to quickly jack the car up and rigidity (not just safety) but limits how people can enter and exit for example.

A harness is just not a good fit for a street car. The three point seat belt is an excellent compromise.