Emergency vehicle door hazard lights

• US 6,184,786 B1
• Filed: 06/14/1999
• Issued: 02/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Wayne Medeiros
• Original Assignee: Wayne Medeiros
• Inventors: Medeiros, Wayne
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daniel J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HUNG T
• Application Number:
  US09/332,375
• Time in Patent Office: 603 Days
• Field of Search: 340/471, 340/472, 340/468, 340/425.5, 340/469, 340/473, 340/470, 340/384.4, 340/463
• US Class Current: 340/463
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/2611 Indicating devices mounted on the roof of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/32 for indicating vehicle sides , e.g. clearance lights
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/324 for signalling that a door is open or intended to be opened

Abstract

An unacceptable number of police, fire, ambulance and other emergency personnel are killed or injured when they pull over to the side of the road and exit their vehicle. These accidents occur when passing vehicles are not aware that an occupant is exiting the vehicle, and these passing vehicles travel too close to the stopped emergency vehicle.

Inventions that automatically illuminate an open door call attention to emergency personnel responding to hostile situations involving gunfire, placing emergency personnel at risk. Safety features need to be easily disabled in order to protect the occupants as they exit an emergency vehicle in such hostile situations.

This invention places blinking hazard lights in the doors of an emergency vehicle so that when any door is opened, the exposed rear facing surface of the door contains a hazard light that is selectively activated in order to blink in concert with the emergency lights on top of the emergency vehicle. When the overhead emergency lights are not activated, but the headlights are on, the door hazard light is illuminated without any blinking. The door hazard lights are disabled when the “kill” switch for the dome light in the vehicle is set to disable the dome light.

Claims

1. A hazard safety light system for a motor vehicle comprising:

a door in a motor vehicle which is attached to the motor vehicle by means of one or more hinges, said door having a connecting surface that connects an outer shell of said door to the surface exposed to the passenger of said vehicle when the door is in the closed position, being perpendicular to the ground and clearly visible when said door is in the open position;

an optical device to be mounted in said connecting surface of the door;

a door-switch that detects when the door has been opened;

an overhead emergency light facility, commonly installed on emergency vehicles to alert motorists that an emergency vehicle is traveling on an emergency basis, when utilized with an audible siren;

an emergency-switch that activates the overhead emergency lights;

a flashing-circuit which intermittently causes the optical device to be illuminated, thereby creating a flashing illumination;

a set of motor vehicle headlights suitable for illuminating the roadway ahead of a motor vehicle;

a headlight-switch that enables the headlights;

a dome light which illuminates the interior of the motor vehicle when any door in that motor vehicle is opened;

a dome-switch that selectively disables the dome light; and

,

a hazard-circuit which selectively causes the optical device to be energized so as to provide a hazard warning, whenever the door-switch detects that the door has been opened and the dome-switch has enabled the interior light, and with the headlight-switch being set to enable the motor vehicle'"'"'s headlights.

2. A hazard safety light system for a motor vehicle as in claim 1, wherein the hazard-circuit is replaced by a circuit which selectively causes the optical device to be energized through the flashing-circuit so as to provide a flashing hazard warning, whenever the door-switch detects that the door has been opened and the dome-switch has enabled the interior light, and with the emergency-switch being set to enable the motor vehicle'"'"'s overhead emergency light facility.

3. A hazard safety light system for a motor vehicle as in claim 1, wherein the hazard-circuit has all the functionality defined in claim 1 plus the ability to selectively cause the optical device to be energized through the flashing-circuit so as to provide a flashing hazard warning, whenever the door-switch detects that the door has been opened and the dome-switch has enabled the interior light, and with the emergency-switch being set to enable the motor vehicle'"'"'s overhead emergency light facility.