Side-Safety Invention Poised to Help Save 8,000 American Lives Annually
Greg Phillips, a longtime automotive "tinkerer", has devised a highly effective yet inexpensive mechanism for minimizing side-impact collisions.
PHELPS, N.Y., Oct. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In the United States alone, the menace of side-impact (or what some people call "T-bone") collisions causes over 1,300,000 accidents, 400,000 injuries, and over 8,000 fatalities per year. Moreover, the annual financial costs of side-impact collisions amount to over $40 billion. These statistics pertain to car/truck drivers, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike. Fortunately, a cost-effective and ingeniously simple solution to this deadly problem has been formulated by Greg Phillips, an inventor in upstate New York. The solution, known as Side-Safety, revolves around his clever and highly practical use of an additional set of brake lights.
The inventor determined that what's needed is a pair of side-facing brake lights – on both the right and left edges of the vehicle's rear-view mirrors – that are wired to illuminate whenever the driver pump the brakes. As Mr. Phillips realized, in many situations, the rear lights are not visible to other parties on the road. For example, imagine a pedestrian about to cross a road. She sees a car approaching the intersection and, since the light in front of that car has just turned red, the pedestrian, unable to see that the rear brake lights are not illuminated, assumes that the car will stop prior to the intersection. Tragically, that is not the case as the driver is distracted by an angry phone call he's in the middle of. So, she steps in front of the car and, by the time the driver realizes his mistake, he can only swerve away but he still strikes her, inflicting a serious injury.
However, in the same scenario with the Side-Safety mechanism in place, the pedestrian is informed of the upcoming danger well in advance as she sees the side-facing brake lights indicating that the driver of the approaching car is not braking. Particularly when adopted by a substantial number of people within the country, Side-Safety is poised to decrease the incidence of side-impact collisions significantly, thereby benefiting thousands of vehicle drivers and passengers along with thousands more motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.
Presently, Greg Phillips is communicating with various regulatory, road safety advocacy, and industry stakeholders about the life-saving benefits of Side-Safety. If you or your organization would like to reach out to Mr. Phillips, you may reach him through the new Side-Safety website, Side-Safety.com (http://www.side-safety.com). As well, through that site, you can gain access to additional Side-Safety materials – including excellent information about the unique market benefits of this much needed invention.
SOURCE Side Safety
Share this article