Are shoulder restraints coming to an airplane near you? On the Freakonomics blog, Steven Levitt reported that he encountered shoulder restraints on a recent United Airlines flight. Dr. Levitt, who has previously reported on the lack of data supporting the assertion that child booster seats increase safety beyond seat belts alone, was skeptical of their utility. In a lively debate in the comments, Patrick Smith of askthepilot.com and author of a similarly titled book and excellent column at Salon.com addressed many common misconceptions.
For the record, it seems that the need for the shoulder restraints is specific to a particular business class seat configuration and they will not be migrating to all seats anytime soon. However, as the data as to its safety is not conclusive, it is not a loss yet. Besides, the space between seats in economy is usually so small that there is not much room to be thrown forward.