ROAD ACCIDENT WARNING SYSTEM

摘要

A warning system for the prevention for road traffic accidents is described in which a vehicle carries a transmitter (1) and a receiver (2). A sensor (7, 8, 18) on the vehicle may trigger the transmitter to emit a warning signal. A corresponding receiver in a second vehicle may then receive that warning signal and alert the driver by producing an alerting signal. The warning signal consists of two parts: an urgent warning signal and a subsequent non-urgent warning signal, and the alerting signal consists of corresponding urgent alerting and non-urgent alerting signals. Thus the recipient of the alerting signal knows whether the accident has just occurred or has been present for some time. In a preferred embodiment the receiving vehicle retransmits the warning signal only when it is a non-urgent warning signal. Additionally, the invention relates to a warning system in which the recipient of the alerting signal may transmit a further warning signal if the alerting signal is of a given characteristic, such as signal strength, clarity, or signal to noise ratio.