FIFE COMPANY UNVEILS THE LATEST IN ROAD SAFETY TECHNOLOGY

A Fife company has designed an interactive educational resource that aims to help users of all ages better understands a driver’s reaction time and how different factors affect their concentration.

FifeX, a product design company that has been helped by Business Gateway Fife, designed The Road Safety Reaction Timer in collaboration with the Road Safety team at Renfrewshire Council and the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC) in Dunfermline.

Now, thanks to a partnership with Transport Scotland, every school and road safety team in Scotland has access to the company’s unique ‘plug ‘n’ play’ device, which aims to highlight reaction time, thinking distance and braking distance in a fun, interactive way.

Michael McDonnell, Director of Road Safety Scotland, part of Transport Scotland’s Road Safety Team said: “The Reaction Timer is an excellent addition to existing road safety education resources in Scotland. Road Safety Scotland is delighted to support the roll-out to local Road Safety Teams, who are working with their schools to incorporate the Reaction Timer activities into lessons and making valuable links with the Curriculum for Excellence.” After pressing a ‘start’ button, the intuitive desktop device calculates a random time at which to activate the ‘hazard’ – a flashing LED that then remains permanently on. The time taken for the user to hit the ‘stop’ button provides the person’s reaction time. Users then have the ability to explore the relationship between their reaction time and their thinking and braking distance against speed and road conditions. The device is also available with an audible hazard and foot pedals, for added reality.

Craig Harvey, Managing Director, FifeX said: “The device is innovative and has attracted a lot of attention from road safety teams throughout the UK. In the past few months we have sold an additional 30 units to South Lanarkshire, to Road Safety teams in Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire Councils, and Police Forces in Dorset and Northern Ireland. We are also in talks with other forces, councils and transport organisations with the aim of rolling the product out wider in the UK – and abroad.

“Anecdotal evidence shows users are gaining a more comprehensive understanding of road safety as a result of the device which challenges people’s thinking in an interactive way. By introducing other things such as operating a mobile phone, radio or SatNav whilst still trying to use the device, we are able to highlight how concentration and reaction times alter dramatically.  We’ve even taken the Reaction Timer out of schools and into pubs to highlight to adults the effect alcohol has on response time; it definitely got worse as the night wore on!”

A repayable grant sourced through Business Gateway Fife helped Craig, and his business partner Kenneth Boyd, launch FifeX in 2002, shortly after graduating from St Andrew’s University. Since then the company, which is based in Mill Court Industrial Estate, Tayport, has gone on to work with the likes of the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra), National Health Service (NHS), Edinburgh International Science Centre and numerous councils producing interactive exhibitions and educational tools.

Brian Storie, Business Adviser, Business Gateway Fife said: “Helping the company secure a grant gave them the financial backing they needed to get the company established. Over the past 10 years we’ve provided them with guidance and support which has helped them grow their business into a successful enterprise, flying the flag for both innovation and Fife throughout the UK and abroad.”

Craig added: “Business Gateway’s support has been immensely helpful to us and even although we are an established business now we still turn to our business adviser for assistance whenever we need advice; he is almost like an extra employee but without the wage!

“Over the years we have brought fresh thinking to product design and work with clients to create interactive devices that aid interpretation, explanation and discovery. We can provide the complete package; from ideas generation, design and prototyping, to manufacture, delivery, installation and maintenance; we even repair and upgrade products built by others. Alternatively, we can be involved in a hands-on or advisory capacity at any stage.”

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