Nils Bohlin’s Invention Saves Lives

Nils Bohlin, pictured here in 1959, invented the three-point seat belt still in use today. Courtesy of Volvo Cars

Even though many take the common seat belt for granted, the automobile safety feature saves around 15,000 lives in the United States each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin’s genius idea came to fruition in 1959, when the changing world of vehicles necessitated a better way to keep passengers safe. Luckily, Volvo’s move to forego profit off their employee’s invention allowed the safety feature to become universal in cars and trucks across the world.

Nils Bohlin

After Bohlin graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1939, he was hired as a safety engineer by Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (now Saab) in 1942. There, Bohlin invented a rocket-launched ejection seat and a harness to secure evacuating passengers for airplanes. During tests, he gained a vast knowledge of motion and what it took to secure a human body.

Over a decade later, Gunnar Engellau, the CEO of fellow Swedish auto-manufacturer Volvo had recently suffered the death of a relative due to the failure of the two-point seat belt. Those seat belts that did come in cars went over just the passengers’ laps and did little to protect them in a crash. Sometimes, the seat belts caused worse injuries than the crashes themselves.

Anchor points for the two-point front seat belt found in earlier car models. Courtesy of Volvo Cars

After his relative’s sudden death, Engellau was motivated to make vehicles safer and recruited Bohlin to become Volvo’s first chief safety engineer in 1958. Bohlin was tasked with coming up with a better safety harness. From Bohlin’s previous work, he knew what securing a passenger required. But there was a difference between airplane pilots, who would wear anything to keep them safe, automobile drivers. He knew he had to make something that the average driver could easily and comfortably use.

He created a new three-point safety belt. There had been other three-point seat belts, but they were built in a “Y” formation. Bohlin feared these would direct the impact to the passengers’ abdomens. After about a year of experimentation, Bohlin devised a seat belt with three fixed points that ran along the pelvis and sternum, bones that can best withstand the force of a crash. The belt was also easily attached with one hand.

The actual three-point safety belt and seat from a Volvo PV 544 model year 1961 that was donated to Smithsonian National Museum of American History on July 14, 2010. Courtesy of Volvo Cars

While Volvo started putting his new seat belt in their cars, the trend didn’t catch on right away. People weren’t convinced of the belt’s effectiveness. To allay fears, Bohlin traveled the world to demonstrate how his invention worked by using an egg and a small toy car.

Bohlin received a U.S. patent for his invention in 1962, and Volvo decided to release the new technology to all auto makers as a way to prove their company’s promise “to prioritize societal progress over financial gain alone.”

By 1963, all Volvos came equipped with the three-point seat belts. In 1967, Bohlin presented an analysis of 28,000 vehicle accidents that claimed his seat belts reduced the risk of injury or death in car accidents by as much as 75 percent. By 1968, the safety harnesses were required by Congress on all new American vehicles.

The three-point belt remains in use today. Courtesy of Volvo Cars

Data from 2023 estimate that nearly 92 percent of U.S. drivers wear Bohlin’s invention every time they are on the road. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Bohlin’s three-point seat belts reduce the risk of death in car accidents by at least 45 percent.

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