Seatbelt celebrates 50th birthday

The seatbelt celebrates 50 years of saving lives this year and His Highness Prince Michael of Kent honours Volvo cars with an award that acknowledges the important work engineer Nils Bohlin pioneered in 1959.

In the UK car manufacturers have been including seatbelts in cars as standard since 1973 and the government made them a compulsory fixing in 1980. The number of lives saved by 'belting up' has reached into the millions and the Department of Transport has implemented on the spot fines to encourage drivers and passengers to use seat belts.

In more recent years the classic three-point design, which remained un-patented by Volvo so that other car manufacturers would employ their use in their own car designs, has been developed to include a range of booster and infant seats. These can decrease the risk of infant death in road accidents by 74 percent. However despite this staggering statistic many people still choose to ignore this advice, on the other hand new laws in 2006 made it compulsory for children under 135cm to use a booster seat.

Roadsafe, a organisation campaigning for road safety, still insist that seatbelts are the most important car safety feature to date and that wearing a belt can reduce the risk of death and injury to adults alone by as much as 65 percent.

Insure My Vehicle provides car insurance for vehicle owners across the country acknowledging car owners legal obligation to obtain vehicle insurance, yet at the same time offering the chance to secure cover for the lowest vehicle insurance premium available.

August 19^th 2009

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