The inventor of the world's first seatbelt for pregnant women is seeking Dragon's Den-type investors to boost his product.
Stephen Weston, who created the pregnancy seatbelt harness at The University of Bolton, Greater Manchester, claims his invention is a world first and now wants investment to enable full production.
His company, Technological Systems, has launched a bid on crowdcube.com, a forum on which private companies advertise for investment from an individual or business in return for shares in the planned company.
Stephen's company, Technological Systems, has launched a bid on crowdcube.com, a forum on which private companies advertise for investment from an individual or business in return for shares in the planned company
Stephen Weston from Bury with the seatbelt he has designed for pregnant women
He hopes there will be some interest in his scheme.
The father-of-two's creation has already featured on The Discovery Channel, on BBC Radio 2's teatime Simon Mayo show and at the 12th annual British Invention Show.
Stephen has spent seven years working on the design, which was inspired by his wife, Lesley.
Stephen is hoping for investment to boost his product, which he claims is a world first
It is called the piXie Harness, and Mr Weston believes it prevents risks to unborn babies caused by ordinary seatbelts.
Instead of putting a diagonal strap across the stomach, the wearer places the diagonal strap behind and has a shoulder harness to secure them in the seat.
Stephen , who lives in Bury, Greater Manchester, said: 'The piXie Harness is the world's first car seatbelt shoulder harness that completely eliminates the diagonal strap from across the wearer's stomach.
'Instead, the diagonal strap is placed behind the wearer and acts as an anchor for the shoulder harness, so in a crash the baby cannot be harmed by the diagonal strap.'
Previous products created to enable mothers-to-be to wear a seatbelt comfortably include 'bump belts' which feature a sit-on pad and velcro straps to pull the lower part of the seatbelt down, and the Emobikids vest which guides the belt around rather than over the pregnancy bump.
