Volvo clebrates 50 years of the seatbelt

Volvo is celebrating the birthday of the three point safety belt today having first introduced the invention to its cars in the summer of 1959.

This might seem like a strange thing to celebrate, or something rather typical for Volvo to celebrate all things considered, but it is estimated the three point safety belt has saved over 1 millions lives since it was first introduced to the car fifty years ago.

Volvo was so convinced of the benefits of its new safety belt that it made the patent available for other manufacturers, and motorists, to use almost immediately.

And while other safety belts have come and gone the invention of Nils Bohlin, would go onto to become the standard for all cars globally. As it happened Bohlin turned out to be rather prolific for an engineering inventor working on the development of fighter aircraft ejection seats for Saab prior to joining Volvo and designing the safety belt.

These days most of us take for granted that we get into a car and put on a safety belt but there are probably still a few people who remember when drivers did not have to wear them at all.

Although cars in the UK began to be fitted with three point safety belts, they did not become a legal requirement until 1968 for the two front seats and it would be another fifteen years before wearing a seatbelt in the front of a car become compulsory - breath tests, incidentally, were introduced at the same time.

By 1989 it become mandatory for children to wear a seatbelt in the back of the car as well and by1991 wearing a seatbelt in the back of a car became compulsory – although this is probably one of the more widely flaunted car safety laws.

Research published by the Department for Transport indicates that annually about 565 people die in traffic accidents not wearing a seatbelt and, in 2007, over 300 of these might have survived had they been belted in.

Peter Rask, managing director of Volvo Car UK, said: “For the majority of motorists, clicking the seatbelt into place is as much a part of the ritual to beginning a car journey as starting the engine.

“That makes it easy to forget its lifesaving potential. However other safety systems, such as airbags, are designed to work in conjunction with seatbelts, so it remains the most important safety device in any modern car.”