There’s nothing Bruce Mather loves more than to take his daily driver through the most challenging racetracks he can find on the Autocross circuit. He’s been able to push his BMW 5-series sedan well past the 130 mile-per-hour mark, just one of many stories he’ll trade with other amateur race-course drivers.

An ongoing issue that often came up in conversation with fellow racers was how tough it was to steer through tight curves without wearing the over-the-shoulders harness typically used by the big boys of NASCAR.

So Mr. Mather, a pharmaceutical company executive, tinkered in his basement workshop until he came up with a special device that doesn’t allow standard car seatbelts to become loosened or slackened during a drive.

Before he started marketing the seatbelt lock to other racing enthusiasts, he paid to have it put through rigorous crash tests to confirm that it didn’t interfere with the safety belt in the first place.

The unintended consequences were what led Mr. Mather to quit his job and to bring CG-Lock to a broader market: The test engineer discovered that the lock significantly reduced injuries in various crash scenarios of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard Tests.

Instead of selling a niche product aimed at amateur racers, Mr. Mather is now the toast of soccer moms everywhere. It seems the CG-Lock keeps baby seats in place even when holding the squirmiest of children.

Another unintended fan base is the military. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that spinal compression – an injury caused by bouncing up and down in Humvees that barrel over tough terrain – is one of the leading causes of battlefield injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“From baby seats to army vehicles, one concept remains true: If you have your hips pinned down to your seat, you’re a solid as a rock. You’re not going anywhere,” Mr. Mather said.

www.cg-lock.com