I always use my car’s seat belt while driving (and wouldn’t set off unless the passenger right to me does the same). Not because the alert system blares annoyingly — because I don’t feel comfortable without it. And I know it can ultimately save my life.
So, sometimes I quietly wonder how many people, in fact, owe their lives to the simple act of fastening a seat belt.
Swedish mechanical engineer Nils Bohlin is rightly credited as one of the individuals responsible for saving the highest number of lives worldwide. Instead of becoming a multi-billionaire if he had waived licensing fees for his invention, the innovator sticked to ethical principles that are rare nowadays.
Employed by the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo between 1958 and 1985, Bohlin proposed in 1958 a groundbreaking method to protect drivers and passengers: a three-point anchoring seat belt pinpointed to both the seat and the vehicle body. This design remains standard in virtually every modern vehicle today, with no fundamental structural or design changes.
At the time, seat belt usage was extremely unpopular, and installing them in cars was optional. Moreover, the belts used by automakers were unsafe, relying on only two anchoring points.
Nils Bohlin in the 1960s.
As a result, fatal and severe traffic injuries were widespread — over 50% in general accidents and more than 80% at excessive speeds, according to statistical data. The situation worsened year after year as the number of vehicles increased and cars became faster.
Volvo was the first manufacturer to adopt the three-point seat belt across all its models starting in 1963 and — together with the inventor — persuaded other automakers to equip their vehicles with the Bohlin belt. Convincing competitors was difficult, despite the fact that the license was offered free of charge. Bohlin and his colleagues analyzed national and regional statistics to prove that seat belts save lives and that Volvo’s design was superior.
The company conducted hundreds of experiments, including with well-known racing drivers, and shared the results with competitors through industry meetings and public presentations.
The two-point belt: Why it failed
Contrary to popular belief, Bohlin did not invent the seat belt itself. Before his innovation, manufacturers used two-point belts — a single strap attached to the seat. This design had serious flaws. The human pelvis is articulated, and a single strap does not restrain the torso, leaving passengers vulnerable to severe head, chest, and spinal injuries during collisions. Additionally, the belt’s positioning could crush internal organs upon impact.
Because two-point belts were uncomfortable and ineffective, many people refused to use them, mistakenly believing they were safer without a belt. This was the primary reason drivers resisted wearing them.
Even in Sweden, adoption was slow. In 1965, only 25% of drivers wore seat belts; the rate reached 90% only by 1975. Interestingly, racing cars had mandatory seat belts as early as the 1910s.
Today, it is rare to see drivers without seat belts in industrialized countries. In most nations, seat belt use is mandatory by law, including for passengers, with penalties for non-compliance. One of the most widely cited cases linked to seat belt non-use is the death of Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash in Paris.
Volvo estimated that more than one million people were saved in the first four decades after the belt’s introduction.
How much money did Volvo and Bohlin forgo?
Because Bohlin was a Volvo employee, the company patented the innovation in its own name, while the engineer was entitled to a commission from licensing revenues. During a typical 20-year patent period, monopoly rights could have generated billions of dollars under intellectual property laws. A hypothetical fee of just $1 per vehicle sold in the United States in 1970 would have generated over $8.2 million; real-world licensing fees are typically far higher.
However, Volvo and Bohlin chose to offer the invention free to all automakers, prioritizing human life over profit. This does not mean Volvo gained nothing: road safety became a major selling point, and by 1978 the company reported revenues of around $1 billion, with more than 40 million vehicles sold globally that year.
Bohlin received numerous honors during his lifetime and died in 2002 at the age of 82. Volvo cars are still widely regarded as among the safest in the world. Its decision to make the patent freely available is widely cited as one of the most influential acts of corporate social responsibility in industrial history.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that the three-point belt has reduced fatal injury risk for front-seat occupants by about 45–50% in passenger cars and light trucks. In SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks, lap-and-shoulder belts can reduce the risk of fatal injury by around 60%.
According to later data compiled by the insurance industry group IIHS (drawing on NHTSA analysis), seat belts saved approximately 20,450 lives in 2019, in the United States alone, and more than 457,000 lives from 1968 through 2019.
The seat belt wearing rate in front seats in most European Union countries exceeds 95%, but rear seat use is lower (about 70–98%). Official statistics suggest that around 12,400 occupants survived serious collisions in the E.U. in a single year (2009) because they wore a seat belt, and that an additional 2,500 deaths could have been prevented that year with near-perfect belt use.
The World Health Organization identifies seat belts as one of the most cost-effective road safety interventions, with road traffic injuries causing about 1.19 million deaths annually worldwide.
Following Volvo’s example, Tesla Motors, led by Elon Musk, made a similar move in 2014 by opening its electric battery patents to competitors. The company announced that it would not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone using its technology in good faith, aiming to accelerate electric vehicle adoption.
Nils Bohlin’s legacy endures in millions of ordinary journeys that end safely and it’s difficult not to feel a quiet debt to Volvo, too, as its ethics-driven decision continues to save lives decades later. In a world dominated by profit chasing, few can claim such a legacy.
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