Elvia98, a pedestrian-saving device, inventor Marangoni's appeal to President Mattarella
Your Excellency the President of the Republic,
I am Angiolino Marangoni, an inventor with 33 patents under my belt.
My passion is for what doesn't exist, for what needs to be created and, above all, what can be not only a useful solution, but possibly indispensable for protecting life.
For years my thoughts have been with the many, too many victims of the road.
My particular focus is on pedestrians, especially the youngest—children crossing the street to and from school—and the elderly—the most vulnerable, also because of their slow movements and reflexes—who find themselves at the mercy of our city traffic and the often reckless maneuvers of our cars.
The solution is now tragic: in our country alone, a pedestrian dies every fourteen hours.
And these constant deaths also come at a very high cost: approximately €17.6 billion per year. I have always believed that one of the biggest causes of these accidents, often fatal, lies in the regulatory and technological vacuum in road rules: today we have pedestrian crossings, and pedestrians are forced to enter the road believing they have the right to cross or, at least, to use common sense, thus having to interpret the intentions of the drivers of vehicles approaching the crossings: will the driver stop? Will he respect the road markings? Is the driver's gaze alert and attentive or absent and distracted?
And the pedestrian, who cannot be a clairvoyant, does not always correctly grasp the driver's intentions, and this with the dire consequences mentioned above!
However, accidents are much less frequent in the presence of traffic lights, that is, in the presence of a system of lights that leaves no room for interpretation of the will of others: green is considered a signal for everyone to pass and red is a signal to stop!
Based on this reasoning, I wondered whether it were possible to equip vehicles with a clear signal that could clearly indicate the driver's behavior near pedestrian crossings. In other words, I wondered whether, just as there is a light signal that indicates the direction a vehicle intends to take (the so-called "arrow"), could there also be a light signal that could "scientifically" indicate to pedestrians whether the driver intends to stop at pedestrian crossings? And furthermore, could such a signal also be extended to indicate to following cars the driver's intention to stop near pedestrian crossings in the presence of pedestrians, thus avoiding the unfortunate overtaking of cars stopped at the crossing? From these constant thoughts of mine since the year “2013” I invented #ELVIA98, an acronym for 'Effective, Bright, Green, Indispensable and Automatic' which brings to mind the name of my mother Elvia, who passed away at the age of 98 in “2014”.
And these are the characteristics of my invention:
*EFFECTIVE: as tested on the road, pedestrians cross the street safely and are aware of the car's behavior near the crosswalk, just as the cars following them stop when they see the light signal, knowing that the vehicle in front has stopped to allow the pedestrian to cross;
*LIGHT: the discovery consists of a system of green lights at the front (with the LED writing “PEDESTRIAN LIFESAVER”) and at the rear (with the LED writing “DANGER OBSTACLES”);
*GREEN: the color green was chosen to distinguish the signal from other lights on the road, from the flashing lights of the police, from brake signals, from direction indicators, etc.; green would be the "ONLY" color of the stop signal for vehicles near the crosswalk;
“INDISPENSABLE: there is no more time to wait, in fact we are already late due to all the deaths that have already occurred due to the lack of our technology and our legislation in this regard and it is essential to act with °ELVIA98;
*AUTOMATIC: the light signal is connected to the vehicle's braking system and turns on automatically and synchronously when braking: you can't choose and decide, and therefore, if necessary, forget: if I brake and stop near the crosswalk, the light signal turns on automatically and the pedestrian knows with certainty that he can cross (conversely: if the pedestrian doesn't see the light signal, he knows with certainty that he CANNOT cross!).
/fELVlA98, moreover, in its simplicity and immediacy, could also be easily taught to children from kindergarten onwards; it would be easy to instill road safety education in the first pedestrians in our society, as well as in the most vulnerable individuals who crowd our streets. Children would immediately understand the intuitive 'order' underlying #ELVIA98: with the green light coming from the car in front of me, I cross; without the green light, I remain stationary, like at traffic lights!
Since way back in 2013, I patented my discovery and, through advertising and correspondence, I have repeatedly tried to bring my idea to the attention of citizens, law enforcement, politicians, and local governments. However, the more #ELVIA98 was appreciated by everyone, the less it was listened to by the institutions!
I would therefore like to bring #ELVIA98 to your kind attention so that I can share my idea with everyone, for the good of the community and certainly not for my own gain: I am ready to make °ELVIA98 available (having already paid the eleventh fee for the patent expiring on 30-11-2023;) to anyone who wants to help me help the Society avoid having to register a death every fourteen hours!
With this letter of mine, I therefore ask you to have our ministerial apparatus evaluate the validity of my discovery and implement the best use of it, also by adapting the Highway Code regulations and thus closing the existing regulatory gap.
I am always ready and available to share #ELVIA98 with the community and to study with
anyone who wants to listen to me the best applications of the said machine to increase and
prevent road safety.
I thank you for the attention you have given to my few lines, certain that you will work, as you have always valiantly done in these years, for the good of our Society.
Best regards, Angiolino Marangoni.
