Few safety features boast a success record like the humble car seatbelt. Now compulsory equipment to all new cars produced around the world, for most drivers their use is second nature. But as vital and familiar as the seat belt is today, when the concept was conceived, many automotive manufacturers were actually against their fitment.
“It sounds strange, but back in the late 1940s and early 1950s car makers worried that offering seat belts as an option, let alone standard equipment, would give buyers the impression the cars were unsafe,” explains managing director of Quickfit Safety Belt Service, Stuart Quick. “Obviously, we now know this couldn’t be further from the truth, but even when seatbelts were added as an additional factory option, only around 2 per cent of customers actually chose to pay for them, while the manufacturers who fitted them as standard were met with countless customers requesting they be removed!”
Of course, these early seatbelt types were not the three-point, pre-tensioner equipped items we have today and were much simpler static-mounted lap belt affairs, oftenhave consistently shown, even these rudimentary devices are a step up in safety from nothing at all. Although the concept of seatbelts originated in the USA, the first record of a three-point seat belt system as standard equipment in a mass produced vehicle was in 1959 when it was used in the Volvo 122. In the interests of safety, the Swedish manufacturer then left its new seatbelt design patent open, meaning it was available for other car manufacturers to adopt for free.
