Nils Ivar Bohlin (July 17, 1920 – September 21, 2002)
Nils Bohlin, the Swedish engineer and inventor responsible
for the three-point lap and shoulder seatbelt–considered
one of the most important innovations in automobile safety,
was born in Härnösand, Sweden.
Before 1959, only the two-point lap belts were available in
automobiles; for the most part, the only people who regularly
buckled up were race car drivers.
In 1942 Bohlin started working for the aircraft maker Saab as
an aircraft designer and helped develop ejection seats. In
1958 he joined Volvo as a safety engineer where he invented
the three-point safety belt, now a standard safety feature in
all cars.
