^^^^^^ yup! that's what i've been trying to say all along....the "safety" aspect is an illusion...any "sudden decelleration" that causes an armrest to wag about forcefully, is going to "wag" the pax a f-in sight more.
I suspect they aren't primarilt designed as an energy absorber and as the last poster stated, they'll likely break a few ribs.
I, too have done the big motor-accident bit....internal organs don't like sudden stops, and as I pointed out, a waist-only belt can have dire consequences in high load situations. As no-one's produced any evidence that the whole pax-restraint matrix (rails/seats/belts) is designed to fail progressively before actually fatally injuring the occupants, one must assume the earlier poster hit the nail on the head, I.E. to hold the bodies in position and aid identification.
OK so I paraphrase but the gist is the same, IMHO, the pax restraints/crash-protection are largely illusiory in a situation where surviveability would be marginal.
Just suppose the armrests (remember them?
were longer and designed to ram into a socketin the seat in front....the seats could not tear out from the rails....the whole shebang would progressively collapse forward in a big bump.....now we have a 21st. century crumple-zone....add airbags in the seatbacks and redesign the aisle armrests or big sidewings on the aisle seats....
Pax may have an acceptance-problem , being held in what is effectively an individual booth (I prefer "Safety -Cell") but I'm damned sure that we could improve on the present system which is basically unchanged since the dawn of commercial aviation.
Dare I whisper "cost and what they can get away with"