A civil engineering student at Vhembe TVET College's Makwarela campus has come up with a clever invention that might just be able to curb the number of fatal accidents on our roads or at busy business centres.
Chifhiwa Ravele spent a month designing and putting together the model of a machine that can force speeding motorists to stop. "I have often watched with concern how recklessly motorists drive on busy roads, like the N1, or in townships. Such reckless driving usually ends up in fatalities. To stop, or at least reduce this road carnage, I came up with an invention I call Road with automatic stop sign," said Ravele, a resident of Chitereke village.
Two of Ravele's lecturers at Makwarela Campus assisted him to build the scale model of the machine. He explained how it works. "The machine is mounted like a robot (traffic light) at hot-spots for accidents. The other part of the machine is fixed underground, in the middle of the road. If it is not safe for a vehicle approaching the spot where the machine is installed, the underground part pushes out, producing red spikes and forcing the driver to stop. When it is safe to proceed again, the machine automatically draws back underground."
Should Ravele's concept prove to be novel (new), inventive and useful (determined by conducting a patent search), he can file for exclusive patent rights on his invention with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).
Ravele would like to join hands in future with the Roads Agency Limpopo to reduce fatalities on the province's roads. He aims to produce many more concepts that might assist in this regard.