Celebrating 60 Years Of Saving Lives With Seat Belts But More Can Be Done
This year marks the
60th anniversary since the first Volvo drivers pulled Nils
Bohlin´s innovative three-point seat belt over their shoulders in 1959. Today
the seat belt is still seen as the world´s most important traffic safety
innovation ever and is estimated to have saved more than one million lives.
However, even with these facts in hand, too many truck drivers neglect to use
this simple device. “This is clearly a waste of lives,” declares Anna Wrige
Berling, Volvo Truck’s newly-appointed Traffic & Product Safety Director.
“The record shows that there would be so many fewer casualties if all drivers
used their belts.”
In 1959,
the Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin developed the modern three-point seat belt.
Although the design was patented, the company decided the patent was to be left
open, making it available to all vehicle manufacturers to use for free. This
rather unconventional decision was made in the greater interest of public
safety, to ensure that everyone, independently of whether they drove a Volvo or
not, could be safer in traffic. This decision proved to be very beneficial to
the world.
“There is no safety system that comes even
close to the seat belt in terms of saving lives, and the three-point safety
belt has protected more people in traffic accidents than any other safety
device,” says Anna Wrige Berling.
A
life-saving innovation – but not always used
In many
parts of the world seat belt usage among heavy truck occupants is still far
from 100%, unfortunately.
“The
Volvo Trucks Safety Report for 2017 showed that half of all truck drivers
killed in traffic accidents would have survived if they had been wearing their
seat belt,” explains Anna Wrige Berling.
So
what are the reasons it’s not used? Some truck drivers mistakenly believe that
there is no need for a belt in a truck, due to the size of the vehicle.
“The
facts are clear: Using the belt is very important also in trucks. For example,
in rollover accidents, the belt can help protect the driver from being jammed
between the truck and the ground,” continues Anna Wrige Berling.
The
Zero Accident vision
Volvo
Trucks has a vision of zero accidents and believes that truck manufacturers,
traffic authorities, infrastructure planners, other experts, and drivers around
the world need to work together to achieve a safer traffic environment.
“We
are sharing our traffic safety findings widely and have offered our knowledge
and expertise to universities, research laboratories and partner organizations.
Whenever traffic safety is discussed, we want to participate. This helps us
learn even more about the issues, the potential solutions and how to design the
trucks of the future,” concludes Anna Wrige Berling.
Anna
Wrige Berling brings in-depth knowledge of traffic safety issues to her new
position. She has extensive experience from working with both active and
passive safety issues within the Volvo Group´s product development, advanced
engineering and research organizations.
During 2008-2013, Anna led the Volvo Trucks Accident Research Team, which since
1969 has investigated traffic accidents on site and compiled traffic safety
data for use in future product development. She has represented Volvo in
external traffic safety forums and has had a prominent role in the
communication of Volvo’s safety offering to the transportation industry.
Most
recently Anna has been managing the area of Traffic Situation Management within
automated driving at Volvo Trucks. She holds a Master of Science in Engineering
Physics from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.