Rear vs. Front Seatbelt Locking Mechanism

I noticed that the rear seatbelts do not lock when retracted quickly like the two front seat belts.
In other words, if I pull very quickly on either front seatbelt, it locks so that it can no longer be pulled out any further.

This locking feature does not work for the back seatbelts.

Is this normal?

I am worried since my kids booster seats are back there.

2002 Manual PT Cruiser

[PT_Sean]

Not 100% sure if they lock in the lower winding mechanism, or are locked at the point where the shoulder and lap belts meet. In the event of a collision, the friction there is enough to lock the shoulder strap portion from getting longer (more slack), thus restraining the occupant. The waist thus won't change either. This of course assumes that the shoulder belt is properly worn. I do have my doubts however if the lower winding mechanism DIDN'T have a recoil of some sort.

The front ones are a little different, they actually have a small explosive device to RECOIL the belt in the event of an accident/air bag deployment, the rears do NOT have this.

Sorry if this does answer your Q, its a good one though!!

S

Thanks for the feedback.

The manaufacture's term for the explosive device in the front is a 'pretensioner' (which I am familar with since the company I used to work for manufactured these devices).

The pretensioner is seperate from the other locking mechanism I was speaking about.

I'll check the lower portion of the lapbelt and see how it reacts to a quick pull.

Thanks