Party Time: Volvo celebrates 50 years of the three-point belt

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Filed under: Safety, Videos, Volvo

Volvo's three-point seat belt - Click above to watch the video after the break

Back in 1958, most Americans wouldn't have been caught dead wearing a seat belt. That was mostly because safety belts were optional equipment in every car sold in the U.S. and drivers were suspicious of the things.



Just one year later, though, Nils Bohlin of Sweden invented and patented a three-point safety belt system that Volvo immediately made standard on its Amazon model. Variations on that system are still being used today in virtually every modern car.



Volvo, as you might expect, is pretty proud of itself, bragging that Mr. Bohlin is personally responsible for saving a million lives and that the three-point safety belt is Volvo's most important innovation and "almost certainly the most important invention in the whole history of traffic safety." Hmm. Maybe, but what about the, um, stop sign? Or double yellow line? Just saying. Then again, Volvo says the German patent office called the three-point belt one of the eight patents that had the greatest importance to mankind between 1885 and 1985. Surely that's now been trumped by 24-7 cable news networks.



Regardless, if you want to celebrate 50 years of safer driving with Volvo, chill the beer, fire up the grill and watch the video after the break. There's some great historical footage including one of a crash test with a live person as well as, more importantly, gratuitous footage of a girl in short shorts. Hit the jump to watch the video and read the full press release from Volvo.



[Source: Volvo]

Continue reading Party Time: Volvo celebrates 50 years of the three-point belt

Party Time: Volvo celebrates 50 years of the three-point belt originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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