The risk of serious injury among seatbelt-wearing Volvo drivers has fallen by 79%, according to new research examining five decades of vehicle safety development.
Volvo also found substantial improvements in side-impact protection, with injury risk falling by as much as 89% for some occupants.
Volvo’s safety reputation is longstanding and its recent models score five Euro NCAP stars, and the XC60 was declared the safest car ever tested in 2017 at the time of its assessment.
The latest findings give Volvo dealers evidence of long-term safety improvements beyond crash-test ratings, although the research does not rank current models or compare Volvo with rival manufacturers.
The paper, Designing for Equal Occupant Protection – Learning from the Past, Moving Forward, was written by Lotta Jakobsson of Volvo Cars and Chalmers University of Technology and Thomas Broberg of Volvo Cars.
It analysed Swedish crash records involving 41,620 drivers, 12,949 front-seat passengers and 5,076 rear-seat passengers. All were wearing seatbelts and aged at least 13.
Side-impact injury risk falls
Researchers compared vehicles grouped by model-year decade from the 1970s to the 2010s, using records of crashes occurring through 2021.
The headline 79% reduction compares drivers in models from 2010-2019 with those in models from 1970-1979. It measures the risk of an occupant’s most severe injury being rated moderate or worse, rather than the risk of death.
In side impacts, injury risk fell by 84% for front occupants seated on the struck side and 89% for those on the opposite side when comparing the newest and oldest model-year groups.
The paper charts developments including Volvo’s Side Impact Protection System in 1991, torso side airbags in 1994 and inflatable curtains in 1998.
Locating torso airbags in the seatback rather than the door was shown to have helped maintain their position relative to occupants of different sizes and with different seat adjustments.
Male and female drivers experienced similar downward trends in injury risk, particularly across the three most recent model-year decades. Protection also improved for both front and rear passengers.
Complex crashes remain a challenge
The researchers argue that standardised crash tests capture only part of the variation in real-world collisions, occupant characteristics and injury mechanisms.
Despite the safety gains, the authors identify multiple-impact crashes and collisions combined with rollovers as a continuing challenge, with protection failing to progress at the same rate as in other crash types.
Rear-seat improvements included three-point belts, belt pretensioners, load limiters and seat designs intended to reduce the risk of passengers sliding beneath their belts.
For dealership sales teams, the research provides useful context when explaining less visible safety features, particularly rear-seat protection, alongside crash-test scores and driver assistance systems.
The authors also note that changes in roads, crash circumstances and the wider traffic system may explain part of the improvement.
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