Young inventor sees red

Teenager Edward Wilson has made his big ‘brake’ into the car industry – by inventing a rear light system that shows how quickly a vehicle is stopping.

And the good news is that the technology is designed to be retro-fitted to any model. Edward, 17, has called the gadget SlowSafe, and it’s earned him a 2007 Young Engineer for Britain award. His set-up uses sensors to measure a car’s rate of deceleration and illuminates the LED brake lights accordingly. The faster the vehicle is stopping, the more intense the beam.
He claims it could help put a stop to rear end shunts, which accounted for 69,183 accidents in the UK last year. As well as improving safety, the system could help traffic flow, as it works whether the brake is pressed or not – for example when a car is slowing under engine braking. Edward, from Nottingham, is also in talks with car makers for SlowSafe to be fitted to production models.