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Fifty years of the seatbelt
Car travel has got far safer since the introduction of three-point seatbelt 50 years ago. But how has this invention become a road travel staple?
Invented by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin, the first V-shaped seatbelt appeared in Swedish car dealerships in August 1959.
Former aviation engineer Bohlin set out to create a seatbelt that was safer than the two-point seatbelts then available. His solution was simple, but so effective it is still being used today.
Bohlin's floor-anchored design was patented by Volvo under an 'open patent', meaning it was available to anyone and it was quickly adopted by other car manufacturers. However, the public took longer to warm it.
'Clunk click every trip'
The first government seatbelt campaigns emerged in the 1970s, with then-DJ Jimmy Saville requesting motorists to: 'clunk, click, every trip'. By 1982, 37% of drivers in the UK wore seatbelts. This was up to 93% the following year when the use of a seatbelt in the front of a vehicle became compulsory. Buckling up also became a requirement for children in the back of a car by 1989; the law was extended to adults in 1991. The fixed penalty for not wearing a seatbelt has recently doubled to £60.
According to Volvo, wearing a seatbelt in the event of an accident cuts the risk of serious injury in half. Yet, the Department of Transport believes that around 5% of drivers and two-thirds of passengers still fail to wear a seatbelt. The Green Flag report on safe driving shows most people do belt up while driving but when sitting in the back this is not always the case.
Of the estimated 565 people not wearing a seatbelt when killed in an accident in 2005, the Department of Transport suggests some 370 may have survived if properly restrained. The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety charity says that seatbelts have saved 35,000 lives in the UK during the last 25 years.
Belting up is still the easiest way to make your car journey safer.
To find out more about car safety, see Green Flag's guide to safer driving and make sure you have your Green Flag breakdown cover in place.
