BELT UP
NEWS COPY – WITH PICTURES
The modern-day three-point seatbelt celebrates its 50th birthday today (Thurs) – after saving the lives of more than ONE MILLION motorists.
The world’s most used safety device was invented in 1959 by Nils Bohlin, a former aircraft engineer who worked at Swedish car makers Volvo.
Bosses at the motoring giant were so convinced of its life-saving potential they made the patent available to other firms rather than keep the invention to themselves.
By 1963 all Volvo cars were fitted with three-point seat belts and after an initial period of scepticism, other manufacturers followed suit.
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 life-saving 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 car.”
Volvo estimate that around one million lives have been saved due to the seatbelt, although no globally coordinated traffic-safety statistics exist.
But figures released by the Department of Transport reveal every year 565 people die in road traffic accidents not wearing a seatbelt, 300 of who could have been saved if they were wearing belts.
And in the UK alone 35,000 lives have been saved since 1983.
Corresponding estimates for the USA in 2004 show that safety belt use saved 15,200 lives and resulted in society saving 50 billion dollars in costs.
Nils Bohlin was working for SAAB’s aviation division designing catapult seats for aircraft when he was poached to work for the car manufacturer.
A three-point belt had been designed in 1952 and a patent was pending in the US but it was designed for aircraft.
So Bohlin came up with the high-tech device which pulled across the shoulder and lap and clips into a buckle near centre console, specifically for cars.
The invention meant the driver – and passenger – would be held in place by a belt across the abdomen and with the anchor points allowing the person to move in an impact.
In 1959, the by now patented three-point belt was launched in the Volvo Amazon and PV 544 on the Nordic markets.
When it was met by scepticism Bohlin and a colleague Orvar Aspholm, who had forged a successful career in Formula 3, travelled around car shows in Sweden to demonstrate its effectiveness.
As amazed spectators looked on Aspholm buckled up and repeatedly rolled a car at more than 49mph – clambering unscathed from the wreckage each time.
The belt proved so successful in Scandinavia that in 1963 Volvo patented it in America.
Bohlin and another colleague even went as far as to visit the States in 1967 armed with a report which revealed its astounding safety record in Sweden to trumpet the invention.
The ‘28,000 Accident Report’ showed the number of Swedes whose lives were saved due to the invention and revealed the belt cut deaths by around 50 per cent.
At the time Bohlin said: ”I realised both the upper torso and the lower part of the body had to be held securely in place, with one belt across the chest and another across the hips.
”It also needed a non-moving attachment point for the buckle, placed far down beside the occupant’s hip so that the belt is pulled taut across the body throughout the collision sequence.
”It was a matter of finding a solution that was both simple and efficient in use since it had to be able to put on with one hand.”
Hans Nyth, head of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre added yesterday: ”What makes the three-point belt unique is that it improves safety for all types of occupants, in all types of accidents, in both the front and the rear seats.
”People often talk about the protective effect in head-on collisions, but the belt also helps prevent the car’s occupants from being thrown out of the car in a rollover.”
Bohlin’s three-point belt has been identified by German patent registrars as one of the eight patents to have had the greatest human significance between 1885 to 1985.
He shares the honour with patent-holders such as Benz, Edison and Diesel.
ENDS