L.A.U.R.I.E, EveryPerson's Indy 500 Yellow Flag

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Here is my best idea ever.

When there is an accident at the Indianapolis 500 race, they bring out the yellow flag and so, even though other drivers cannot see the problem, they all slow down.

In the USA over 100 people a day (that's a 9/11 every ten days) are killed in car and truck accidents.

My concept will not stop most first accidents, but it will go a long way to reducing secondary accidents.

In a nutshell, when an airbag goes off, a radio signal carrying the GPS location of the airbagged car is sent out instantly. All new cars would be equipped to send out the signal.

All new cars would also be equipped to receive such signals. Depending on the distance to the bag deployed, and whether the receiving vehicle was approaching it or going away from it, a set of lights (coded like 9/11, with an audible for the more dangerous warnings)would be activated.

So, if you were on a 2 lane country road with blind curves everywhere, and an accident occurred just around the next bend, you would have time to slow down so as to avoid becoming part of the action.

In urban areas you would want to have the ability to limit the range to much less than you would want in the country.

A secondary code light could be used to let you know if emergency vehicles were approaching your area, activated by those vehicles. This would allow cars to get out of the way for ambulances and police vehicles, even if their drivers had MP3's blasting in their ears on their IPods.

In areas of high risk you might want to put repeater stations, so that if the originating car was destroyed, the signal would still get out, even if the original signal only lasted for a fraction of a second.

A secondary benefit of this would be to heighten awareness of the need to pay attention to the road. Drivers would all perk up even if the accident occurred slightly off their path and out of their normal awareness. Annoying ? Maybe so. I find 100 deaths/day a lot more annoying.

For those who say, "well, that will take at least x number of years to have any effect," I can only ask, "Will life be any less precious 20 years from now ? Do you see anybody making any other changes that will substantially affect the accident rate at so little cost ? If all the new cars start slowing down, don't you think those in older cars will take that as a warning ???"

Maybe you would prefer we return to cars with no seatbelts and no airbags, that would be so retro and cool......



Douglas Keachie, B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1969



So, what does the acronym L.A.U.R.I.E. stand for ?

Local Airbag Universal Radio Information Explosion

I have named this in honor of Laurie H. Glass, originally Laurie Haig, who died when her car came around a flyover curve at night in the MacArthur Maze in Oakland Calfornia, and blinded by the lights from the on-coming traffic from the Bay Bridge, she plowed straight into a darkened mass of debris, what was left of a van driven by a drunk/stoned driver, who walked away from the wreck. If this system were in place, she might be alive today, brightening the world, her son's life especially, with her laughter, art, love and joy. We miss you, Laurie !