Driving Sports

When I was a kid, wearing your seatbelt was terminally un-hip. No, not for us was the stodgy old belt - we were invincible and laughed in the face of death!

We were also stupid, and some of us died because of it.

Racing drivers know that you drive better when you're held firmly and comfortably in your seat. Force equals Mass times Acceleration - one of the basic laws of physics we all learned in high school - applies to your body in a car accident. In any accident, your body is subject to extreme G forces. At 10 Gs of acceleration, you weigh about a ton when your chest hits the steering wheel. Nothing good has ever been reported about that kind of event.

And every once in a while, there comes an invention that's too good to be the exclusive feature of one brand. Mercedes-Benz invented the crumple zone that allows your car to take the hit instead of your body, and it was Nils Bohlin of Volvo who invented the three-point seat belt.

On Thursday August 13, 1959, the world's first car with standard-fit three-point safety belts - a Volvo PV544 - was delivered to the Volvo dealer in the Swedish town of Kristianstad. Over the last 50 years, the V-shaped three-point seat belt has saved well over one million lives.

There were different types of seat belt before that. Back in the 1930s, US doctors were beginning to speak out, saying that cars should be equipped with safety belts. But to this day, the three-point safety belt remains your car's single most important safety feature. It is the most widely used and most significant safety innovation in the 120-year history of the automobile.

What's even more interesting is that neither Volvo nor Mercedes kept their inventions to themselves, and in fact encouraged other automakers to adopt the safety devices without any credit or payment to the inventors.

Feed out, stretch, click and pull taut. A simple movement of your hand and the seatbelt is in place - at the same time as the risk of fatality or serious injury in a collision is cut by more than 50 percent. And of course, seat belts are required by law in pretty much every place that has laws.