Teen’s Invention May Help Prevent Blindspot-related Car Accidents
The features of cars that have done the most to reduce the rate of accidents and car accident-related injuries are not necessarily the newest or flashiest. The humble seatbelt has prevented more accidents than the (admittedly useful) rear-facing camera or the dreaded heads-up display (HUD) can hope to prevent. Mirrors are as old as the world itself, even occurring in nature, but equipping cars with strategically placed mirrors has helped to reduce the frequency and severity of accidents. Despite that a properly adjusted rearview mirror and side-view mirrors enable you to see most of the cars beside and behind you, almost all cars still have a blind spot that is not visible from any of your car’s mirrors or your normal peripheral vision. An eighth-grade student from Pennsylvania has just won a prize for inventing a device that would enable drivers to see cars that would otherwise be in their vehicles’ blind spots; if it becomes commercially available, it could prevent many car accidents.
Alaina Gassler’s Award-Winning Invention
Every car, except perhaps the most minimal of open-top designs, obscures part of what its driver can see through the car’s mirrors with a portion of its frame. Therefore, when another car is behind that part of the frame, the driver cannot see it, and it is said to be in the driver’s “blind spot.” Accidents sometimes occur when a driver tries to merge into a lane without knowing that there is another car right behind them in the lane, despite looking in the rearview and side-view mirrors.
Alaina Gassler of West Grove, Pennsylvania won a prize for a science and engineering project, in which she invented a way to project the images blocked by the car’s frame onto the blind spot itself, effectively giving the driver a panoramic view of the road behind them. She won $25,000 for the project, which was sponsored by the Broadcom Foundation.
Alaina’s solution to the problem of blind spots was to mount a camera on the exterior of the car and have it project an image of the road behind it onto the car’s frame. When the device is enabled, the back of the car’s frame appears to be invisible.
Blind Spots and Car Accidents
Alaina’s invention may be a solution to a problem that causes many accidents, which is especially impressive considering that she is too young to drive and has never had to work around the car’s blind spot herself. Meanwhile, if you have already been injured in a car accident in which another car was in your blind spot or you were in the other driver’s blind spot, you have other remedies. A car accident injury lawsuit could help you get financial compensation for your injury-related expenses.
Let Us Help You Today
Scott Smith is a personal injury lawyer who seeks justice for people injured in car accidents and helps them get the compensation they need. Contact Palm Beach Gardens car accident lawyers at Smith, Ball, Báez & Prather Injury Lawyers for a consultation.
