Imagine how many people would have sustained serious facial and upper body injuries in car accidents if they were not wearing a three-point safety belt. And how many drivers and passengers would have been injured if they were not protected by a laminated windshield.

These are only two of the long list of safety inventions of which the Volvo Car Corporation can proudly claim to be the inventor. The three-point safety belt, introduced in 1959 in the Volvo 120 and invented by the engineer Nils Bohlin, is still regarded as one of the most important safety innovations of the previous century.

Many more groundbreaking safety features by Volvo followed – one of the latest is a Blind Spot Information System that warns the driver of a moving vehicle or motorcyclist in the typical, often overlooked, blind spot. Future models will most probably be fitted with a lane-keeping aid, and accidents will also be prevented by a system that keeps a fatigued driver from falling asleep.The research and technological developments that forego the eventual implementation of such systems in production motor vehicles is evidence of Volvo’s commitment to put safety first, as expressed as far back as 1927 by the company’s founding fathers, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larsson. Thus safety became a core value of Volvo at the company’s inception.

A field of research where Volvo also established itself as a leader since the 1960s is child safety. The first child safety seats were already tested in the early 1960s, and in 1964 Volvo started testing a rear-facing seat. This research led to the introduction of the first rear-facing production child seat in Volvo cars in 1967 – the year in which seat belts for the rear seats were also introduced. Safety in cars, and even more importantly, the safety of children in cars, is an ongoing passion at the Volvo Safety Centre in Sweden, under the leadership of Ingrid Skogsmo, director of the Safety Centre.

However, children still suffer injuries, or die, in cars because their child seats are incorrectly installed or are not suitable for their age, height or weight. Or, worse still, because they travel in cars without either child seats or safety belts. Since this is often due to lack of knowledge, Volvo Cars has embarked on a campaign to inform the public about the dangers facing children in cars who are not restrained properly.

Part of the campaign is a manual describing how pregnant women and children of different ages can travel as safely as possible in the car.

Many questions
“Pregnant women or new parents have many questions, especially how the newest addition to the family can be carried safely in the car,” says Lotta Jakobsson, Child Safety Specialist at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre.

“We get many questions about the safest place in the car for the child, how he or she should be secured in the child seat and whether a safety belt can harm the mother-to-be. These are answered in our new child safety manual.”

Rear-facing safest
Jakobsson explains that a child’s head is big and heavy relative to its body. The head of a nine-month-old baby accounts for no less than 25% of the child’s body weight, compared with 6% in an adult. A child’s neck and neck vertebrae are not fully developed and are very different from those of an adult.
In a frontal collision, the head of a forward-facing occupant is thrown forward with violent force. However, while the neck of an adult can withstand this stress relatively well, that of a small child cannot; and since frontal collisions are the most common and usually the most violent type, it is particularly important that small children are seated facing the rear.

“Facing the rear is absolutely the safest way to travel in a car and Volvo Cars recommends this as far as practically possible,” comments Jakobsson.

Research based on real accidents
Among other sources, child safety researches carried out by Volvo Cars, as well as the recommendations contained in the new manual, are based on the company’s own studies of real-life road accidents. The Volvo Cars Accident Research Team database contains details of over 36 000 accidents, involving more than 60 000 people.

“These accident statistics are unique of their kind,” comments Jakobsson. “The team’s studies show clearly that rear-facing child seats offer a very high degree of protection.”

Protection for older children
The Volvo Cars child safety manual also deals with questions such as the age at which the child may be seated facing forward and, in that case, what type of protection is suitable.

“At the earliest, we advise parents not to face a child forward until it has outgrown its rear-facing seat and has reached an age of at least 3 years,” adds Lotta. “By then, the body proportions have evened out and the neck has developed. However, the child is still too small to use a safety belt alone and a child booster cushion should be used.”

This ensures that the lap belt is in secure contact with the thighs, not against the child’s stomach, thus protecting the delicate internal organs in a crash situation. To encourage this practice, Volvo Cars recently introduced an integrated two-stage child booster cushion in its new XC70. The lower level is suitable for children between 115 and 140 cm in height, while the upper level is designed for smaller children between 95 and 120 cm.”

Child safety is not just a matter of technical solutions. Unfortunately, knowledge of how children should travel safely in cars is lacking in many parts of the world. In many cases, children travel completely unrestrained or secured incorrectly in protective equipment not designed for them. In addition, attitudes and legislation vary from country to country.

“We hope and believe that our safety manual will be very useful to everybody who carries their children in the car,” says Jakobsson.

Among other outlets, the manual will be available from Volvo dealers and as part of various market activities. Readers who are interested in the Children in Cars safety manual can call the toll free number 0800 320 444, or visit www.volvocars.co.za to order the booklet.

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