ICM - Leeds Design Agency

Happy birthday to the humble three point seatbelt – 50 this week!. An invention that has saved millions from injury and death since its invention in the 1950s. A fantastic example of design that changes out lives (literally).

Volvo introduced the first production three-point belt in 1959. The first car with three point belt was a Volvo PV 544 that was delivered to a dealer in Kristianstad on August 13, 1959. The three point belt was developed by Nils Bohlin who earlier had worked on ejection seats at Saab.

Until the 1980s, three-point belts were commonly available only in the front seats of cars; the back seats had only lap belts or diagonal belts. Evidence of the potential for lap belts to cause serious internal damage when in a collision has led to a revision of passenger safety regulations in nearly all developed countries requiring that all seats in a vehicle be equipped with three-point belts.

In the UK compulsory seatbelt use in the front seat of a vehicle, which came into force on January 31, 1983, although car manufacturers had been legally obliged to fit front seatbelts in vehicles since 1965, which leads me on to one of my favorite adverts ever – Jimmy Savile and the Clunk-Click Campaign . . .

I think for my next blog I may dig out my Tufty Club Handkerchief . . .