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A Special Gift for the Man Who Gave Us a Special Gift: The Three-Point Seat Belt

17 May 1997

A Special Gift for the Man Who Gave Us a Special Gift: The Three-Point Seat Belt

    ROCKLEIGH, N.J., May 16 -- Approximately 27 lives throughout
the United States are being saved each day by a retired Swedish automotive
safety engineer.  Often people never get to thank a stranger in a case like
this.  However, soon, many will have the chance to offer words of appreciation
to Nils Bohlin, inventor of the three-point lap/shoulder seat belt.
    Attendees at Lifesavers 15, a national conference on highway safety
priorities to be held in Orlando, Florida, June 8-11, will have the
opportunity to contribute to a tape being sent to Mr. Bohlin in recognition of
his life-saving invention.
    President Clinton, in a radio address in December, asked all American
adults to always wear seat belts as a first line of defense against injuries
and fatalities.  Wearing seat belts saved an estimated 9,797 lives in 1995,
according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
    Mr. Bohlin, now 76, was working in the Volvo Safety Laboratory in
Gothenburg, Sweden, struggling to come up with something better than the
safety belts of the early 1950's when he got the idea that led to the
invention of the three-point seat belt, which crosses both the hips and the
upper body.

SOURCE  Volvo Cars of North America Inc.