“Cars are driven by people. The guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo, therefore, is – and must remain – safety,” said Assar Gabrielson and Gustaf Larson, founders of Volvo, in the early 1930s.

A lot has changed on the safety front since Volvo’s founders issued their clear and unambiguous approach to safety issues, with car makers fitting more features as standard on all road cars. But, in Volvo’s mind, safety must be approached in a holistic way and just engineering cars to perform well in specific crash tests doesn’t go far enough as testing standards’ methods vary from country to country.

Volvo believes crash safety should be assessed using three key methods:

• Physical testing
• Accident investigation
• Expert assessments

But no one method can be used in isolation. Volvo’s safety philosophy is based on a holistic approach. It aims to build cars which:

• Primarily help the driver to avoid accidents
• If an accident is unavoidable, help to protect all of the occupants
• Take account of the safety of the occupants of other cars and of unprotected road users

Safety ratings
Safety ratings are a public way of educating drivers about the performance of different makes and models of cars in crash tests. Volvo performs well in all the tests (see below), but is committed to take safety beyond how many stars are achieved.

• Front and side ratings – maximum rating achievable is 5 stars (formerly 4)
• Pedestrian rating – maximum rating achievable is 4 stars
• Child protection rating – maximum rating is 5 stars. Introduced in November 2003.

In Euro NCAP tests, Volvo cars have achieved at least four stars in the safety ratings, not forgetting that four stars was the benchmark when testing first began.

However, Volvo believes one set of safety ratings is insufficient to make a considered judgement on a car’s safety performance. It is sensible to broaden research to include other safety tests carried out around the world.

The following methodologies demonstrate that, whatever the test, Volvo rates as a top performer, wherever its cars are sold around the world. For instance the US NCAP tests cover a different set of tests to Euro NCAP. As a global car maker Volvo has to comply with these tests and overall its performance is very good (see below).

• 5 stars is the maximum rating achievable in all categories

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) also publishes its own research findings and the safety performance of the Volvo range is very impressive (see below).

• “Good” is the top category and the best result available

The 3CC is small, sleek and environmentally efficient

“Volvo believes one set of safety ratings is insufficient to make a considered judgement on a car's safety performance”

All details are then analysed back at the Volvo Safety Centre. Safety innovations that owe their origins to this team include side impact protection (SIPS) and WHIPS anti-whiplash system. Whiplash is a common injury in accidents and Volvo’s WHIPS anti-whiplash system reduces the chance of serious injury. Thatcham has recognised this system by awarding all Volvo models its highest possible rating – a unique performance not achieved by any other car manufacturer.

Child safety
Volvo introduced the world’s first rear-facing child seat in 1972 and believes all children should, whenever possible, be seated facing the rear until at least the age of three. Facing the rear is the safest way to travel for any of us, but especially for children. Babies and children are fragile passengers as their heads are big and heavy in relation to the rest of the body (25% of total weight), and have thinner skulls and underdeveloped necks, pelvis and vertebrae compared to adults.

In the event of an impact using a rearward-facing child seat, the whole of the child’s back takes the impact, rather than its much more vulnerable neck. There is a five times greater risk of fatality or serious injury for children in forward-facing seats. Babies and toddlers should be rearward facing up until at least the age of three and preferably longer. Currently, only one in four three-year-olds use rearward facing seats. Rearward-facing seats should be only be used in the front passenger seat if the car has disabled the passenger airbag. In Sweden, the use of seatbelts and car seats, particularly rearward-facing child seats, has risen from 25% to almost 100%. As a result, occurrences of injuries of Maximal Abbreviated Injury Scale scoring two or above (on a scale of one to six, where six is most severe) are now a fifth of what they were 20 years ago.

Future concepts
Volvo is already looking at future safety concepts and has proved its ideas do become reality. Unveiled at Detroit in January 2005 was the 3CC, which demonstrates Volvo’s vision of sustainable mobility for the future. The 3CC is a small, environmentally efficient car with a zero emission electric powertrain, great aerodynamics and a lightweight, high-strength steel space frame. Its electric power comes from 3,000 lithium batteries identical to those used in modern laptops, packaged in a thin sandwich floor that can adapt to house the most appropriate future powertrain, whether it is petrol, biogas or a hybrid electric.

Despite being a smaller car, Volvo didn’t compromise on safety for the 3CC, so developed the unique “Volvo safety ride down concept” to absorb collision forces in a frontal impact by controlling the forward motion of the occupants.

For more information, visit: www.volvocars.com