Research Article
Hongjun Pan
Abstract
A new collision safer device is proposed to divert the collision force in the automobile collisions and partially convert the harmful force into non-harmful force, therefore, it will substantially reduce the harmful impact force on the people and on the vehicles during the collisions, lives can be saved and property damage can be reduced. The proposed collision safer device has one free rotation wheel installed horizontally at the vehicle lower front left and right corners, respectively. The wheels will be the first contact of the vehicle in non-perpendicular forward collisions, the collision force component parallel to the collision surface will cause the wheel rotating and make the vehicle rolling slide along the direction of the parallel force component, therefore, the collision will be softer and less harmful, so lives could be saved and property damage could be reduced. The collision test with mini 3D printed models shows that the collision safer device will significantly extend the moving distance after the vehicle collides into a roadside crash barrier in the relatively small collision angle and give the vehicles behind more time and distance to slow down, so the severity of the rear-end collision will be reduced, lives will be saved, even the collision can be avoided. This collision safer device is simple, low cost and can be added to the current design of all types of common vehicles without major modification of the structures.