This year it has been 50 years since the invention of the seat belt
The three-point safety belt was invented by a Volvo engineer and the Department for Transport estimate that out of 565 people who die each year in road accidents, 300 could have been saved if they had been wearing a seatbelt. Volvo estimates that 1 million lives have been saved by the invention. Wearing a seatbelt in the UK only became compulsory in 1983.