Safety first: 3-point seat belt turns 50
A Luddite friend refuses to where the shoulder harness on the three-point seat belt installed in his aging Toyota Camry. For some reason, he thinks it's unsafe.
Automobile safety statistics argue to the contrary.
Fifty years ago, an article in the April issue of Smithsonian magazine chronicles, the three-point seat belt was introduced by auto safety leader Volvo.
Nils Bohlin, a Volvo mechanical engineer who had previously designed ejection seats for Saab aircraft company, is credited with designing the one-snap passenger restraint that has saved countless lives.
"No one can tally exactly how many lives Bohlin's three-point seat belt has spared, but the consensus among safety experts is at least a million. Millions more have been spared life-altering injuries," the article notes.
Indeed, we've come a long way from the mid-20th century when Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe At Any Speed, exposed the reasons behind the carnage on America's highways.
More needs to be done to ensure passenger safety. Indeed, my Luddite friend and I do agree that safety features are far more important in new cars than infotainment bells and whistles.
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