Author by : Lance Winslow
Should Rail Road Crossings have additional bright red lights, which shine into a car, which is in the unsafe zone prior to a train crossing? Each year so many people needlessly die at railroad crossings. This happens for many reasons; some crossings have no crossing gates, the gates malfunction, a car stalls or a driver attempts to beat a train and guess or calculates the speed and distance.
There is a high death rate in accidents when trains hit cars the difference in kinetic energy, weight and size is no contest for the motorist. It costs millions to outfit and maintain these railroad crossings. Is there a way for another type of warning system one, which shines into the car, which would work even if the power is out, no matter what; a fail safe system? I believe there is using electromagnetic induction technology to charge a capacitor instead of the lights working off a power source or battery, which could age and then fail.
Currently there are some nifty micro-flashlights being used which you can buy which use a similar technique and are available thanks to the Everlite Flashlight technology research lab. These smaller flashlights work by shaking them for about thirty seconds and shine for about 6 minutes and they shine quite bright since they use a very bright LED light. Here is a link to this home use flashlight:
http://demo.physics.uiuc.edu/LectDemo/scripts/demo_descript.idc?DemoID=1138
http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/ee_shakelight.html
If such units are made a little more robust with a red light pointed at “kill zone†often nick-named by traffic officers, then we could reduce deaths. I appreciate you looking into this and thanks for thinking here.
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[tags]Rail Road Crossing, Warning lights, Concept[/tags]
