The good oil: Three-point seatbelt turns fifty

Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin demonstrated the first three-point seatbelt on August 13, 1959. Photo / Supplied

The motoring world's most significant safety invention had its 50th birthday yesterday. Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin demonstrated the first three-point seatbelt on August 13, 1959, and told the rest of the world's carmakers that they were free to use his invention. The Victorian State Government in Australia was the first legislative body in the world to make use of the belt compulsory. That was in 1970. A year later, road deaths across the state were down 18 per cent. Bohlin's seatbelt is recognised as one of the eight most significant patents in the 100 years from 1885 to 1985. Says Volvo New Zealand manager Mark Patterson: "It's why we like to say there's a little bit of Volvo in every car."

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Writes Ross, from New Lynn: "I use my foglights while driving on the open road because I want as many people to see me as early as possible. Like a lot of NZ cars, my Mitsubishi Galant is silver, and even in good conditions, it can 'merge' into the road surface from a distance. The more visible I am reduces the risk of my being involved in a head-on. If I am following another car for an extended distance, I switch my fog lights off. I personally have never been 'blinded' by an oncoming car's foglights. I think the biggest issue on our roads is the failure to keep left."

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Nissan's plug-in electric hatchback is likely to go on sale here and Australia in 2012. But the Leaf will only be available to to lease. At least that's the case across the ditch, where Nissan Australia CEO Dan Thompson expects it to cost around A$30,000 ($37,500) and command monthly repayments and running costs on a par with a same-sized family hatchback. Thompson said the Leaf would be a fleet-only proposition initially. Car rental company Europcar has said it would offer the Leaf for lease in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland from early 2011, as part of a global deal with the Nissan-Renault alliance. Europcar will install recharging stations at its major outlets.

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Mitsubishi's iMiEV, the first electric vehicle to receive Australian Design Rule (ADR) approval, is likely to beat the Leaf into New Zealand and Australia. Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited says it expects "small numbers" of the iMiEV on the road there next year. CEO Robert McEniry says the first customers will be hand-picked. "We want to give them to people who will promote the technology," he said. The iMiEV costs about $70,000 in Japan.

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Officials monitoring New Zealander Dean Veale's land speed record attempt on the Bonneville Salt Flats this week couldn't figure out what the pipe running along the bottom of Veale's Hayabusa 1650cc motorbike was for. It was only after they confirmed Veale's world record speed of 311.2km/h that the Kaukapakapa man played his hand. The pipe held an umbrella. "I'd been told it got hot here and didn't want to sit in the sun and cook, so I packed some shade," said Veale.

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Police in Forrest City, Arkansas, wanted to make sure armed robbery suspect Lawrence Harden Jr wasn't going anywhere. So they put cuffs on his wrists and shackles on his ankles and told him to sit tight in the back of their SUV. But Harden Jr slipped his bonds and legged it. Police dogs tracked him down. The cops repeated the drill and sat Harden Jr in the back of a police sedan. Yep, he legged it again. Police did manage to get Harden Jr to jail - after riding with him in the back seat.

alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz