#1478: LaddAir

Ladders remain both ubiquitous and potentially lethal. Someone I know fell off one and broke both femurs.

Today’s invention is a system designed to lessen the severity of such accidents.

It consists of a number of automotive-type airbags which are stored in pods attached to the base of a ladder. These would be wired to pressure sensors in the ladder rungs and feet, so that the position of a worker would be known to a processor in the pod control unit.

When a fall was in progress (as detected by a sudden asymmetry in rung and foot loadings), the airbags would be timed to fire so as to be fully inflated at the instant the victim made contact with them.