When you have just been involved in a car accident, everyone within range will be shaken up.
It can take minutes, even if no-one is hurt, to get around to deploying warning triangles upstream and downstream of the scene.
Today’s invention is a flexible, glass fibre mast, resembling an old fashioned CB radio aerial, which extends upwards, driven by a motor to a height of say 5m above a vehicle. It could be deployed manually when the hazard warning lights are activated or even automatically when the car suffered a sudden impact.
This would be topped by a flashing light to indicate an accident to oncoming vehicles in either direction.
A more advanced version would allow for several independent masts in case the vehicle had partly or wholly overturned.
(Their batteries might well be isolated from the main unit in order still to operate even if the car was badly damaged. Alternatively, the masts could be stored in a bowed configuration, requiring them only to be released to hoist the warning lamp(s)).
Good idea!
reminds me of a similar idea I had a few years ago. It used an inflatable helium ballon on a wire which was triggered by an airbag mechanism. Inside the ballon was a LED. The advantage of the balloon is that it also works as a buoy when the car dives into water. With a remote control one could also let the balloon go if one cannot find the car on a carpark (OK everyone should have an unique code otherwise … 😉
Regards,
Rob
Finding my car in a carpark would be a huge benefit…it would need some kind of in-car, phoneable device to achieve the range though, I guess.
Cheers,
Patrick