While the three-point safety belt's simple basic design has remained largely the same since Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin introduced the device 50 years ago, it has also undergone numerous refinements to deliver collision protection more effectively and remains an integral part of the industry's high-tech safety system development.
Few people have saved as many lives as Nils Bohlin - the Volvo engineer who in 1959 invented the V-type three-point safety belt. A design as obvious as it was intelligent, it remains as perfectly suited to the seat occupant's body today as it did 50 years ago and still provides the most effective protection in the event of a collision.
On August 13, 1959, the world's first car with a standard three-point safety belt - a Volvo PV544 - was delivered to a Volvo dealer in the town of Kristianstad, Sweden.