Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-08
By: CNA and Staff Reporter
A team of four graduate students from National Taiwan University of Technology
The students’ spring-loaded design means less physical effort needs to be expended to break the glass. (Photo courtesy of National Taiwan University of Technology)
(NTUT) in Taipei has won a Red Dot Award in the category of design concept with an idea that improves the emergency window-breaking mechanism for buses, the school announced in a statement Tuesday.
The prize-winning work, named “Corner Breaker,” was developed by Chiu Kai-hsin, Chang Keng-tzu, Yang Chu-ting and Teng Pei-chih. It was one of seven NTUT efforts picked for the prestigious design awards from among nearly 5,000 entries from around the world, the university said.
Explaining their design, Teng said he had read in the news that around 40% of drivers of public buses in Taiwan lock the emergency window breakers in their vehicles so that they will not be stolen by passengers.
The most severe casualties in many bus accidents are caused by passengers having difficulty in escaping, Teng said, and it is particularly difficult for physically weaker passengers like seniors and children to break the windows with the emergency hammer provided. He and his teammates decided to improve the existing device to something that was not just easier to handle but also able to release an alert “when touched by mistake,” Teng said. [FULL STORY]
