The Blue Oval keeps pumping out press releases in anticipation of the Detroit auto show, and we’re more than happy to bring them to you. Today’s release details two more Ford concepts, this time in the area of second-row occupant safety.

The first safety concept is inflatable safety belts, a.k.a. seat belts with air bags. Ford has developed a small, tubular-shaped inflatable bag that could be incorporated into the shoulder and lap belts of back seat passengers. The inflated bags would spread the force of an impact across a larger contact patch and lessen the chance of injury, as well as act as a sort of pretensioner to ensure the belts were positioned correctly before the force of a crash was transmitted to the occupant.

The second safety concept is applying Ford’s BeltMinder system to back seat passengers. The current system goes above and beyond the federally mandated safety belt reminder chiming system by chiming and flashing a warning lamp for six seconds every thirty seconds for up to five minutes. When applied to rear passengers the system would notify the driver when a back seat passenger isn’t buckled up, annoying him or incessantly until the offender straps in.

[Source: Ford]