The man who invented the seat belt

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1958, the late Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three-point safety belt for cars. It's estimated to have saved more than one million lives around the world.

In 2022, Nils's stepson Gunnar Ornmark told Rachel Naylor about the inventor’s legacy.

(Photo: Nils Bohlin modelling his invention. Credit: Volvo Cars Group)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:39.2	We're taking you back to when a Swedish engineer invented the three-point seatbelt for vehicles.
0:45.0	It's estimated to have saved more than a million lives around the world.
0:50.0	In 2022, Rachel Naylor spoke to his stepson, Gunner-on-mark.
0:55.0	It's June 1958, and Nils Berlin has just been appointed as Volo's first ever safety engineer at their head office in
1:04.9	Gothenburg in Sweden.
1:08.6	One of his colleagues, a sales representative, has been seriously injured in a car crash.
1:13.0	I'm going to let Nils pick up the story here.
1:16.0	He's talking in this cheesy Volvo promotional video from the 1980s.
1:20.0	Roll tape.
1:30.0	In the accident, he'd slit out of the belt and was thrown out of his car. When Gunner Engelow, Volvos managing director at that time got wind of the
1:36.3	accident, he reacted immediately. Bloody hell this can't be right. He actually wore the belt
1:42.4	didn't he? This shouldn't be allowed to happen.
1:45.0	This was my cue for letting him know that I'd found certain flaws in our seat belts.
1:50.0	Engleau's conclusion was characteristically plain.
	...

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