Investigation: Seat Belts Used in Millions of Cars

March 7 -- Yvonne Moran said she was certain her husband, Bart, was wearing his seat belt right before he was hurled out of his minivan's rear passenger window and killed.

"I never knew of a single moment, a single opportunity when he was not belted in a vehicle," she said. "Bart had a habit of wearing his seat belt. His was to the point of obsession."

Three other people who knew Bart Moran would later testify that he always wore his seat belt. One who carpooled with him to work even referred to him as "Mr. Seat Belt."

So why did police, the hospital, and the carmaker think he wasn't wearing a seat belt? And if he was wearing his seat belt, why didn't it prevent him from being thrown out of the vehicle?

A Primetime investigation looks at the kind of seat belt found in Bart's 1997 Dodge minivan — and millions of vehicles throughout the country — and speaks with some safety experts who say this seat belt belt is potentially dangerous because it can open more easily than other belts.

Evidence: Splattered Polish

On Christmas five years ago, Bart Moran made a run to the convenience store to buy his wife a bigger pan for the turkey that was overflowing in the oven. At 7:46 a.m., his 1997 Dodge Caravan was hit by a Ford Taurus driven by a 17-year-old.

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Though the Caravan's air bag opened, it didn't stop Bart from being ejected from the car and onto the street. He was taken to a hospital, but died 18 hours later. Most everyone — doctors, police and safety experts — agreed that if he had been wearing his seat belt, he would have survived.

The police report indicated that he was not wearing one, and an admitting nurse at the hospital also recorded that Bart was unrestrained.

Yvonne, his wife and the mother of their little girl, didn't believe it. Her insistence that her husband was wearing his seat belt would have remained nothing more than the protests of a grieving widow if a family friend and trial lawyer, Billy Edwards, hadn't stumbled on a piece of evidence.