In this guest writer article, the DataMotive team explains how its Managing Director, Yoav Ronel, was inspired to solve a decades-old problem – safety at railway level crossings.
One fateful day back in 2013, Yoav Ronel was listening to the news in his car. There was an interview being conducted with the spouse of the bus driver who had lost his life in one of Canada’s worst railway accidents, during which six people died. The bus driver, Dave Woodard, was driving his Ottawa city transportation double decker bus when it crashed head on into an oncoming train, despite the fact that the railway track’s signal lights were on, and the gates were down. The radio interviewer was asking Mr. Woodard’s widow about her husband’s state of mind on that day, and she replied that he was absolutely fine, happy and everything was normal.
An investigation by Transport Canada later found that at the time of the accident, the passengers inside the bus were discussing whether it was safe to go upstairs or not while the bus was moving. The investigation concluded that Mr. Woodard was distracted by the passengers and did not notice the red flashing lights nor the gates until it was too late.
After listening to this tragic interview, Yoav, a Mechanical Engineer by profession, started wondering how such a horrible incident could be prevented. He began his quest by researching rail accident statistics, only to discover how many occurred at level crossings. And then he thought about the poor bus driver and passengers who lost their lives because of distracted driving. How could this be prevented?
A problem solver by profession
Solving problems and finding solutions comes easily to Yoav. A Mechanical Engineer and ASME-published author (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), he has spent his career involved in many different projects. More recently he developed an organically based ‘bio-plastic’ bottle which is based on a biomimicry phenomenon, and can disintegrate at the end of the ‘bottle’ life cycle. Yoav also developed the automation of a food processing plant in Rochester, NY (part of Unilever), offering a new approach in the design of a full Scada system. He then turned his attention to the automotive industry, and developed CARSTAR, an estimating system designed to provide small and midsize repair body shops to produce collision estimates for all makes and models of vehicles, which incorporates the time allowed for each repair as well as costs.
Solving a decades-old safety problem for the rail industry
Flash forward to 2022 and Yoav and his Project Team at DataMotive have come up with an innovative solution to a safety problem that has plagued the industry for many years. ‘TEDS’, or Train Early Detection System, is a simple solution that alerts drivers from within the vehicle when they are approaching a level crossing.
“Distracted driving is on the increase, and it is only going to get worse,” said Yoav. “Despite the heavy fines and deduction in merit points on driving licenses, this is still not deterring distracted driving.
“It became a case of finding a solution to help deal with this problem of distracted driving, but also addressing the safety aspect. By developing this app and using cloud-based server technology, TEDS aims to warn the driver to pay attention each time they are approaching a railway crossing.”
Furthermore, Yoav and his Project Team firmly believe that TEDS can play an important part within a car’s operating system. Just as the rear-view mirror camera is now implemented in most vehicles manufactured today as a safety feature, so too does TEDS deserve a similar spot in the vehicle, all the while contributing to public safety and preserving train mobility. The alert methodology that TEDS uses has never been implemented before and is a game changer for safety in the railway industry.
Yoav hopes that TEDS will become a part of every vehicle operating system that is on the road. “Sometimes it’s the simplest inventions that provide the most effective solutions”, he concluded. Yoav also hopes that railway industry partners will join forces with his team in seeking to put an end to tragic accidents like the collision he heard about on the radio that fateful day.
