| One Million Lives Saved by Volvo Invention |
 More than a million people globally are estimated to have survived a car accident thanks to a 50-year-old invention designed by Volvo - the three-point safety belt.
The three-point seatbelt as we know it today was created by Volvo in 1959 and the manufacturer was so convinced of its safety potential that it made the patent available for other manufacturers, and motorists, to benefit from.
And although we may now take it for granted, modern technological developments, such as seat belt pre-tensioners, are designed to work in conjunction with the same basic design of the seatbelt, so it remains the single most important safety feature on all modern cars.
Volvo was also the first manufacturer to fit three-point safety belts as standard equipment in its cars, from 1963. Now required by law in modern cars, it continues to protect hundreds of thousands of people from death or serious injury in car accidents every year.
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."
Research published by the Department for Transport* indicates that annually about 565 people die in traffic accident not wearing a seatbelt and, in 2007, over 300 of these might have survived had they been belted in. Seatbelt use in cars became mandatory for front seat occupants in the UK in 1983, with further legislation in 1989 making it a requirement for all children to wear one. In 1991 wearing a seatbelt in the back of a car became compulsory.
Driving a car during the 1920s and 30s was a risky business. There were an increasing number of cars on the roads which were getting ever faster, but there was no public debate on the issue of safety. The only car safety discussion in Swedish newspapers and trade publications related mostly to the dangerous habit of parking at night or on unlit streets and roads.
In the world of aviation, safety belts had been used almost from the very outset, mainly because the pilots of the very first flying machines otherwise risked falling out of their open cockpits.
There are actually some very early patents for belts designed for motor cars. Probably the oldest of these is American and was issued in 1885, coinciding with the debut of the automobile. A few years into the 1900s, a French patent was issued for a safety system encompassing both a lap belt and a diagonal belt that stretched across the chest. At the same time, another belt received a patent in England, but it was in the USA that the first safety belts were used on a more widespread basis. In American racing during the 1910s and 20s, tough battles were fought with extremely fast, but not always very stable, cars and in 1922, a race car driver was the first to use a safety belt in the USA.
At this time it was already very clear to American doctors that the physical injuries resulting from car accidents were very serious. Many doctors therefore installed some form of homemade safety belt device in their own cars. During the 1930s, a few American doctors featured in a number of newspaper articles demanding that safety belts be fitted to all motor cars, but hardly anyone paid them any attention.
After the war, American car maker Nash made a commendable, but unsuccessful, attempt to improve safety. Customers were offered factory-fitted lap belts on 1949 models but interest turned out to be virtually non-existent and the trial was abandoned after just one year. The idea of increased safety for the world's motorists was kept alive, primarily by American medical organisations, but also by a few car manufacturers. In 1955 both Ford and Chrysler announced that lap belts would be available as options on 1956 models. General Motors and American Motors joined in somewhat later, but buyer interest was still minimal and all these initiatives fizzled out.
In Sweden, engineer Nils Bohlin had been working at SAAB's aviation division since the 1940s. In 1955 he was responsible for the development of the catapult seat and other safety equipment for pilots. It was Nils Bohlin who designed the catapult seat and its peripheral equipment for the Swedish fighter aircraft J35 Draken.
In 1958 Nils Bohlin was recruited to Volvo by then president Gunnar Engellau and appointed as the company's first safety engineer. Gunnar Engellau had realised the benefits of developing a profile of the company and it was obvious to emphasise safety, which by then had already become a significant part of Volvo's image.
For Bohlin this must have been a radical adjustment: at SAAB his job was to throw people out of a speeding vehicle but at Volvo, his job was to keep them in place.
By this time, the two-point diagonal belt was already available as an accessory for Volvo cars but its injury-preventive capability was not regarded as entirely satisfactory. There was a need for a physiologically correct multi-strap belt and it was on the basis of this that Nils Bohlin shaped his development programme. By 1959, this led to the installation of the three-point safety belt in Volvo's cars and later in cars the world over.
In 1952, a three-point belt had been designed and a patent was pending in the US but it was designed for aircraft. In this design, the diagonal belt was anchored behind the seat, almost directly behind the passenger. The diagonal belt and the lap belt met at the buckle that was positioned on the abdomen, with its anchoring points positioned such that the occupant could move in an impact, whereupon this unfortunately positioned buckle injured the body's softer organs instead of protecting them.
"I realised that both the upper torso and the lower part of the body had to 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 be put on with one hand," explained Nils Bohlin at the time.
In 1958 Volvo's efforts in creating an effective safety solution resulted in a patent application for Nils Bohlin's three-point safety belt. His design had four important properties: 1) The system consisted of a lap belt and a diagonal belt, 2) the belts were anchored at a low attachment point beside the seat, 3) the belt geometry formed a V shape with the point directed toward the floor and 4) the belt stayed in position and did not move in an impact.
Bohlin's belt was in fact an effective demonstration of geometrical perfection rather than a cutting-edge innovation. The solution and the benefits of the three-point design soon spread throughout the world as Volvo immediately made Bohlin's patent available to all car makers.
In 1959, the by now patented three-point belt was launched in the Volvo Amazon (120) and PV 544 on the Nordic markets. Volvo was thus the very first car maker in the world to equip its cars as standard with three-point safety belts. A major step forward in safety had now been taken, but the three-point belt still did not make an immediate breakthrough. Owing to the previous two-point belt's relatively poor protective ability and the fact that it was perceived as awkward, customers initially also resisted Volvo's three-point safety belt. Although it was easy to use and both comfortable and effective from a protection viewpoint, it was met with a certain degree of scepticism.
Rolling over People did not know or properly understand how effective a safety belt protected occupants.
Volvo adopted a drastic method to convey the message by engaging Orvar Aspholm. Aspholm lived for speed. He had competed in speedway competitions and in the 1960s he participated in both Formula 3 and sportscar championships. He knew the risks. He also knew how to roll a PV 544.
He showed off that art to thousands of Swedes at car races and other well-attended events around the country. Sometimes the car was reinforced, but usually it was an ordinary standard car which he rolled over at speeds of up to 49 mph. Every time Orvar Aspholm rolled a car, he remained securely in his seat, held in place by the car's safety belt, and climbed out in one piece.
After Orvar Aspholm finished his active career rolling cars, a new career awaited him: he volunteered to serve as a living test-dummy in low-speed impacts that were conducted using a mobile collision sled. Here both Volvo and Orvar were able to demonstrate the importance of wearing a seatbelt even at low speeds. That was not something that the car-riding public took for granted back in the 1950s and 60s. In a sudden stop at just 3 mph, the human being's heavy head is subjected to a very unpleasant fore-and-aft movement - a movement that is highly dangerous to the cervical vertebra. Without a safety belt, the driver's face also hits the steering wheel during the forward part of this movement.
Thanks to the unlikely educational value of Aspholm's highly entertaining stunts, a large number of people learnt about the three-point safety belt's lifesaving properties.
Introduction to other markets Ahead of the launch in other markets, Volvo conducted sled tests and crash tests with cars equipped with various types of safety belt. The results were clear: Volvo's three-point safety belt gave the best protection to the car's occupants. Backed by these facts, in 1963, Volvo introduced the three-point safety belt in the USA and other markets where, for various reasons, it had not yet been adopted. All Volvos were now supplied with three-point safety belts for the front seats.
And still the American car-buying public was not convinced. For that reason, Nils Bohlin together with Bertil Aldman, doctor and then-head of the Swedish belt-testing and approval authority, went on a lecture tour of the USA. The two Swedes explained Volvo's safety philosophy and the benefits of the three-point safety belt to both a negative car industry and a sceptical general public. In a 1967 traffic safety conference in the US, Volvo presented its ground-breaking "28,000 Accident Report" based on all the collisions involving Volvo cars in Sweden over a period of one year. Only then did things begin to move. The Report showed clearly that the safety belt saved lives and that it also reduced injuries by about 50-60%.
The belt in the rear seat Volvo soon realised the importance of ensuring that all the car's occupants were held securely in their seats, and work on equipping the rear seat with belts was conducted in parallel with other safety-related developments. Volvo's cars were fitted with attachment points for rear seat belts as early as 1958, but it was not until 1967 that Volvo succeeded in convincing the car-buying public that the rear seat's occupants should also use the belts.
Safety expert throughout his lifetime
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