A safety belt arrangement for motor vehicles, comprising at least one safety belt, which is wound to a greater or lesser degree around a belt reel which is rotatably secured about an axis of rotation to the vehicle chassis and which is biased in the belt winding up direction by a retraction mechanism and which also has, in particular, a draw-out blocking mechanism which blocks rapid drawing out of the safety belt and/or further drawing out of the safety belt in the event of accident dependent accelerations of the motor vehicle, wherein a ratchet wheel is rotationally fixedly coupled to the belt reel and cooperates with a latching pawl fixed to the housing, which can be engaged and disengaged in such a way that when the latching pawl is engaged into the ratchet wheel a rolling up movement of the belt reel by the spring retraction mechanism is possible but not, however, a pulling out of the safety belt; and wherein the latching pawl can be engaged and disengaged, with respect to the ratchet wheel, by an actuating element, in particular by a cam ring, via a step-down transmission in such a way that the latching pawl (a) is disengaged when the safety belt is at least substantially fully drawn in, and (b) is engaged when the safety belt is at least substantially fully drawn out.