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274 – Fifty years of life saving

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17 August 2009

Nils Bohlin, inventor of the three-point safety belt

Nils Bohlin: invented the life-saving three-point safety belt, first launched 50 years ago

Nils Bohlin, inventor of the three-point safety belt

IF YOU don’t put on your seat belt, your car probably pings annoyingly at you. The reminder is really irritating. But I guess the nagging warning has to be.

But let’s not get a downer on seat belts. This remarkable life-saving device is now 50 years old. And our thanks must go to Volvo. And, in particular, Nils Bohlin.

Nils, an engineer, had been working for SAAB’s aero company where he had designed the catapult seat for the Swedish fighter aircraft J35 Draken. But then he was recruited by Volvo

For Bohlin this must have been a radical adjustment: at SAAB his job was to throw people out of a speeding vehicle; at Volvo, his job was to keep people in their place.

In 1958 Volvo patented Nils Bohlin’s three-point safety belt. His design had four important properties: The system consisted of a lap belt and a diagonal belt; the belts were anchored at a low attachment point beside the seat; the belt geometry formed a V shape with the point directed toward the floor; and the belt stayed in position and did not move in an impact.

In 1959, the three-point belt was launched in the Volvo Amazon (120) and PV 544, making Volvo the very first car maker in the world to equip its cars as standard with three-point safety belts.

According to Department for Transport research, annually about 565 people die in traffic accidents by not wearing a seatbelt. In 2007, over 300 of these might have survived had they been belted in. Combined with airbags, the 50-year-old three-point seatbelt is a major life saver. So thanks Nils – and Volvo. Like I said, let’s hear it for seat belts.

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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