Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Emergency vehicle beacons

Emergency vehicle beacons warn of their presence
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Problem: Civilian vehicles rounding corners and driving over hills often collide with stationary emergency vehicles and their personnel.

One Solution: Equip ambulances, police cars, postal trucks, fire trucks, garbage trucks and similar vehicles with a short range transmitter. The transmitters will send a proximity warning signal to surrounding civilian vehicles. The warnings would be received by a low cost receiver (government mandated possibly. The received signals could flash lights on the instrument panel and sound alarms through vehicle safety belt unlatched/door ajar signal systems. The alarms would follow a designated, universally recognizable, sound/flashing light pattern.

Oct. 25 2005: A friend of mine suggested that the emergency vehicle might send a broad spark-gap transmitter type "jamming" signal that would broadcast over all AM/FM frequecies at a short range. This could cause some complaints over broken up broadcasts though.

Nov. 19, 2005: The same friend mentioned above found this idea has already been baked. See link below. Thanks Mike!

Sunstone, Oct 09 2005

Emergency Alert http://www.emergalert.com.au/
[Sunstone, Nov 19 2005]

Safety Alert® Traffic Warning System http://www.safety-alert.com/index1.html
Broadcasts a radar signal up to 1 mile ahead and behind the emergency vehicles to warn traffic of emergency vehicles, trains and road hazards. Can't locate URL in the Internet Archive, patent date unknown. [Sunstone, Nov 26 2007]

Emergency vehicle warning system http://www.docstoc....em---Patent-7057528
We have arrived as of June 6, 2006 [Sunstone, Feb 09 2013]

Emergency vehicle hijacks your radio http://www.youtube....watch?v=RYaYw6zhSOY
This ambulance, however, can hijack your car radio to tell you to move out of the way [Sunstone, Jul 01 2013]

Blu Eye device alerts drivers of nearby emergency vehicles http://www.driving....get-blu-eye-device/
The small dashboard-mounted display alerts the driver by bleeping and lighting up when it senses police radio transmissions. It also reveals when ambulances and fire engines are near. The maker claims that it is useful for telling drivers that an emergency vehicle needs to overtake [Sunstone, Oct 27 2014]

[link]






       The alarms could broadcast signal on all radio frequencies, AM and FM. It could be a strong signal but use the emergency vehicle as its antenna, and so have short range. This would not help people who werelistening to CDs, though, and so rather than retrofit vehicles with special receivers, there will be a law mandating that all drivers must listen to the radio.
bungston, Oct 09 2005
  
      
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