Road Accident Prevention Unit: An prototyping approach towards mitigating an omnipresent threat

Road accidents claim a staggeringly high number of lives every year. From drunk driving, rash driving and driver distraction to visual impairment, over speeding and over-crowding of vehicles, the majority of road accidents occur because of some fault or the other of the driver/occupants of the vehicle. According to the report on “Road Accidents in India, 2011” by the Ministry of Transport and Highways, Government of India, approximately every 11th person out of 100,000 died in a road accident and further, every 37th person was injured in one, making it an alarming situation for a completely unnecessary cause of death. The above survey also concluded that in 77.5 percent of the cases, the driver of the vehicle was at fault. The situation makes it a necessity to target the root cause of road accidents in order to avoid them. While car manufacturers include a system for avoiding damages to the driver and the vehicle, no real steps have been taken to actually avoid accidents. “Road Accident Prevention Unit” is a step forward in this stead. This design monitors the driver's state using multiple sensors and looks for triggers that can cause accidents, such as alcohol in the driver's breath and driver fatigue or distraction. When an alert situation is detected, the system informs the driver and tries to alert him. If the driver does not respond within a stipulated time, the system turns on a distress signal outside the vehicle to inform nearby drivers and sends a text message to the driver's next of kin about the situation. A marketable design would also shut down power to the vehicle, thus providing maximum probability for avoiding road accidents and extending a crucial window for preventive and mitigation measures to be taken.