Patent ID: 7061375

Claim:
A system for warning a failure to wear a seat belt to urge a vehicle operator to wear the seat belt, comprising: a sound emitter for emitting warning sounds; a seat belt sensor for detecting a fastened state of a seat belt; a vehicle speed sensor; an electronic controller for receiving a detection signal from said seat belt sensor and a vehicle speed signal from said vehicle speed sensor, and activating said sound emitter with a seat belt warning sound according to said detection signal from said seat belt sensor and vehicle speed signal from said vehicle speed sensor; and a sensor for detecting an alarm state having a lower priority than a failure to wear a seat belt, said electronic controller being adapted in such a manner that the sound emitter is activated in a pattern different from said seat belt warning sound only during a silent state of said sound emitter when said lower priority alarm state is produced; wherein said electronic controller is adapted to activate said sound emitter when a vehicle speed is higher than a first threshold level and said seat belt is not fastened, said sound emitter cyclically alternating between a sound emitting state and the silent state when activated.