Celebrating 60 years of the seat belt

In 1959, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin developed the modern three-point seat belt. Although the design was patented, the company decided the patent was to be left open, making it available to all vehicle manufacturers to use for free.

This rather unconventional decision was made in the interest of public safety, to ensure that everyone, independently of whether they drove a Volvo or not, could be safer.

“There is no safety system that comes even close to the seat belt in terms of saving lives, and the three-point safety belt has protected more people in traffic accidents than any other safety device,” says Anna Wrige Berling Volvo Truck’s newly-appointed Traffic & Product Safety Director.

However, in many parts of the world seat belt usage among heavy truck drivers is still far from 100 per cent.

“The Volvo Trucks Safety Report for 2017 showed that half of all truck drivers killed in traffic accidents would have survived if they had been wearing their seat belt,” explains Anna Wrige Berling.

Volvo Trucks says it has a vision of zero accidents and believes that truck manufacturers, traffic authorities, infrastructure planners, other experts, and drivers around the world need to work together to achieve a safer traffic environment.

“We are sharing our traffic safety findings widely and have offered our knowledge and expertise to universities, research laboratories and partner organisations. Whenever traffic safety is discussed, we want to participate. This helps us learn even more about the issues, the potential solutions and how to design the trucks of the future,” concluded Anna Wrige Berling.