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Nils
Bohlin, inventor of three-point safety belt
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"There's a little bit of 'Volvo' in every vehicle on the American
road," says Anne Belec, president and CEO, Volvo Cars of North
America.
Such a bold assertion is based on Nils Bohlin's development of the
three-point safety belt. And it is now widely recognized that no other
single safety device has saved more lives than the this invention.
In the 1950s, Bohlin, a passionate Inventor, brought his background
with aircraft pilot ejector seats and his concern for human safety to
the Swedish automaker that shared his interests.
Up
until the late 1950's the lap belt -- a safety belt anchored at
two points, for use across the occupant's
thighs/hips -- was the technology of the day. These crude
implements managed to hold vehicle occupants in place, but were
plagued by a variety of health issues resulting from the forces
against the body during a crash. |
Lap
belts were mostly used by race car drivers at that time, and were only
available to motoring public as an option, and a not very popular one at
that. In fact, given the choice between lap belts and white wall tires
... white walls won.
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The
ideas of Nils Bohlin came to the attention of Gunnar Engellau,
then president of AB Volvo in Sweden. Engellau, who loss a
relative in a car crash, brought Bohlin into Volvo and supported
the continuation of his work. Applying the concepts of pilot
restraint in the cockpit of a plane, Bohlin engineered a system
combating 'decelerative forces,' such as the effect of abrupt
stops characteristic in a car crash.
In
1958 Nils Bohlin, Volvo design engineer, patented the
"Basics of Proper Restraint Systems for Car
Occupants," better known as a three-point safety belt. A
year later, Bohlin's lap-and-shoulder belt was introduced by
Volvo as standard equipment on all of its cars, in Sweden.
Today, the 3-Point Safety Belt -- not the first but the modern
seatbelt -- is now a standard safety device in almost every car
and truck.
The
3-Point Safety belt is a safety belt with both a lap and a
shoulder portion, having three attachment points (one shoulder,
two hips). Volvo's unique design allowed for the single belt to
'slip' through the center attaching point thereby increasing
comfort and making adjustments a simple task.
In
1963, Volvo introduced the 3-point safety belt into the United
States.
Beginning
with New York and Texas in 1985, states began to make the use of
safety belts mandatory in vehicles. According to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), if all vehicle
occupants had used safety belts during the period of 1975 and
2000, nearly 315,000 deaths and 5.2 million injuries could have
been prevented. |
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Startling
Facts
Front
3-point safety belts reduce fatalities by 45% in cars
and 60% in light trucks 1
Rear
3-point safety belts reduce fatalities by 44% in cars
and 73% in light trucks 1
Safety
belt usage has gone from 14% in 1984 to 80% in 2004 2
The
rear seat is equally important: A 60-pound child is the
weight equivalent of 2,700 pounds upon impact at 30 mph.
It's like having an elephant in the back seat.
Footnotes
1.
NHTSA: Lives Saved by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standards and Other Vehicle Safety Technologies, 1960 -
2002, pg. 203 2. NHTSA: Lives Saved by the Federal Motor
Vehicle Safety Standards and Other Vehicle Safety
Technologies, 1960 - 2002, table 1-2.
2.
NHTSA: 19 City Survey, 1976 - 1991; NOPUS, 1994 - 2004
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"Statistics
clearly indicate that safety belts save lives," said Belec.
"As we approach the Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest
driving periods of the year, initiatives like 'Click It or Ticket' bring
awareness that we must do everything that we can to encourage people to
wear them."
In
2002, Nils Bohlin was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame,
which honors men and women who have had a significant impact on the way
people live through their patented technologies.
Source:
Volvo Cars of North America
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For
an article listing 74 key Volvo safety innovations, click
here. |
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