Marshall Brain

Behold, the modern seatbelt. But where did it come from? Meet Neils Bohlin, born in Sweden in 1920. Looking back, it’s no surprise that Neils built the seatbelt we all know and trust. He originally worked on ejection seats in the 1950s, and he was intimately acquainted with what makes people fall out of their seats and how to keep them in one. He probably would have stayed with Saab Aircraft were it not for Gunner Ingilo, Volvo’s CEO at the time. Gunner wanted Neils to make sure Volvo’s were as safe as possible. The step from fighter planes to autos might seem easy, but in truth it was very difficult. The restraints used by pilots are four-point harnesses, and were impractical in cars, yet the car seatbelts at the time were two-point lap belts and these belts could cause serious internal injuries in high-speed crashes. In 1958, Bohlin created the three-point seatbelt which keeps passengers safely restrained in moments of intense deceleration. This design became standard in Volvo cars, and the idea quickly spread around the world.

So how genius is this inventor? On the American Dream scale, he gets a four. Neils received credit for a great idea and became the head of Safety Research and Development. He also became a member of the automotive hall of fame and received a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. On the benefits to humanity scale he gets a five. While other inventions have also saved millions of lives, the modern seatbelt saved a million lives in less than 50 years. On the ripple effect scale, he gets a five. The three-point seatbelt was originally a Volvo invention, but has become standard in cars worldwide. And who knows how many other inventors his device has saved.

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