Seat Belt 50th Anniversary

There's been a few news reports lately saying that the car seat belt has turned 50, and that Volvo can take the credit:

http://www.cnet.com.au/happy-50th-three-point-seat-belt-339297922.htm

Volvo didn't invent the seat belt - they were first patented in the USA in 1885 and had been fitted to aircraft since the 1930s. Volvo's first was fitting a THREE POINT seat belt to a production car, in 1959.

What no one has mentioned so far is that Volkswagen was the first car maker to fit seat belt mounting points to an Australian-made car, when the 1962½ model came with them as standard (front and back), long before Holden, Ford and Chrysler. They weren't required by law here until 1970.

Being a panel-beater back then, I could see what a good idea seat belts were. I fitted them - lap belts from an aircraft - to my Beetle in January, 1960.

Cheers, Greg

ring the Telli up n give them a blast

I thought seat belts were mandatory from 1966?

Nope, 1970 in Australia (for three-point belts).

There were earlier regulations requiring cars to have belt mounting points fitted, but not belts.

See http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/seatbelts.htm