Cycle safety improved in just a flash

Published on 06/12/2012 02:42

A YOUNG inventor has devised a potentially life-saving light, which beams a laser image of a bicycle on to the road ahead to alert motorists of their presence.

Emily Brooke, 27, a graduate from the University of Brighton hopes her invention, called Blaze, will help cut the number of cycling deaths on Britain’s roads.

The device is battery-operated and projects a bright green image of a bicycle from a bike’s handlebars by about five metres to help eliminate blind spots.

The product, which has been launched following two years of development, costs £60.

Miss Brooke, from Bath worked with road safety experts and driving psychologists to 
develop the device.

She said yesterday: “Three years ago I had never been on a road bike. To raise money for charity, I decided to cycle from Land’s End to John o’Groats.

“That challenge set me on the path to becoming a cycle nut. I was studying product design and for my final year project I chose urban cycling.

“As I cycled around Brighton I thought to myself, ‘that bus or van over there can’t see me.’

“I thought how could I project myself in a way that a driver could see me, and came up with this.”