Volvo made history – and the world a far safer place – 50 years ago today when it delivered the world's first car with standard three-point safety belts.

We take them for granted nowadays, but the three-point belt was revolutionary when it appeared on Aug. 13, 1959. In the years since, the V-shaped safety belt has saved well over a million lives. It has been called one of the most significant inventions of the 20th century, and it remains the most widely used safety innovation in automotive history. Every single car sold today uses three-point belts.

And it all started with a Volvo PV544 delivered to a dealership in the town of Kristianstad, Sweden.

The three-point belt was invented by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin, who was looking for a better way of keeping people secure in a collision. Lots of cars had two-point lap belts, and there were a couple of versions of three-point belts but they weren't very effective, especially at high speed. Bohlin and Volvo – a company fanatical about safety – knew there had to be a better way.

Bohlin, a former aviation engineer at Saab who worked on airplane catapult seats, knew an effective belt must absorb force across the pelvis and chest yet be so easy to use even a child could buckle up. He came up with an ingenious solution that combined a lap belt with a diagonal belt across the chest. He anchored the straps low beside the seat so the geometry of the belts formed a "V" with the point directed at the floor. That design meant the belt would stay put and not shift under a load.

The design couldn't be easier to use: Feed out, stretch, click and pull taut. It's just that simple. It's also remarkably effective. Buckle up, and your risk of fatality or serious injury is, according to Volvo, cut by more than 50 percent. Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says the three-point belt has saved more than 1 million lives worldwide, according to the BBC.

"What makes the three-point belt unique is that it improves safety for all types of occupants, in all types of accidents," says Hans Nyth, head of the Volvo Cars Safety Center. "In both the front and the rear seats. One often talks about the protective effect in head-on collisions, but the belt also helps prevent the car's occupants from being thrown out of the car in a rollover, for instance."

Bohlin and Volvo saw the significance of what they'd created, but they didn't keep it to themselves. Volvo patented the design under what was called an "open patent," meaning it was available to anyone.

Within five years, three-point belts appeared in cars throughout Europe and the U.S. Bohlin's invention has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented or reduced the severity of injuries for countless people. That makes the three-point safety belt the single most important safety device in the 120-year history of the automobile.

And that's not just Volvo that's saying that.

Bohlin's invention has been singled out by German patent registrars as one of the eight patents to have the greatest significance for humanity during the hundred years from 1885 to 1985. Bohlin shares this honor with patent-holders such as Benz, Edison and Diesel.

Take that, laws of physics.

Photos: Volvo