The History of the Three-point Seat Belt

Back in 1959, Nils Bohlin, a safety engineer at Volvo cars in Sweden, succeeded in his given task of creating a three-point safety belt for vehicle occupants.

Volvo, being as tremendously safety-focussed as they are, immediately allowed other automakers to use the new device without fees because Volvo puts human safety ahead of their corporate profits.  (Name any other automakers who have done that!)

This 2009 video already looks a bit dated but contains good information for readers in the USA

Now, sixty years later, Volvo’s gift to world society is known to have saved over a million lives.

The modern seat belt has evolved dramatically over these six decades, however, and is now even more efficient at saving lives.

In the USA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] has summarized the available data by stating “seat belts reduce serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about half.”

What is needed now in the USA, in 2019 and beyond, to save another 5,000 American lives each year?  The answer is frankly simple — or it would be if not for politics.

American states need to forget about so-called ‘secondary laws’ and make seat belts throughout the USA be subject to primary enforcement.  And we must continue with the relevant, persuasive education for all road users, too.  That is critically important.

Get more information here, from Wikipedia.