Skip to main content

Intrusion warning improves workzone safety

Transpo Industries launched a unique concept in work zone intrusion protection last year. The SonoBlaster impact-activated safety device warns both roadway workers and errant vehicles simultaneously. When impacted, the unit's built-in CO2-powered horn blasts loudly (125 dB) for 15 seconds, signalling crews that their work zone has been violated. This provides critical reaction time to move out of harm's way. The company says there are also resultant safety benefits for the driver, who may be able to take ev
January 31, 2012 Read time: 1 min


Transpo Industries launched a unique concept in work zone intrusion protection last year.

The SonoBlaster impact-activated safety device warns both roadway workers and errant vehicles simultaneously. When impacted, the unit's built-in CO2-powered horn blasts loudly (125 dB) for 15 seconds, signalling crews that their work zone has been violated. This provides critical reaction time to move out of harm's way. The company says there are also resultant safety benefits for the driver, who may be able to take evasive action.

 Since its launch, Transpo says that as a result of customer feedback from deployments in over 27 US states as well as seven different countries, a stackable cone bracket has been added to the device so the Sonoblaster can remain mounted and ready to use on a work truck.

Related Content

  • November 12, 2015
    Driver aids make inroads on improving safety
    In-vehicle anti-collision systems continue to evolve and could eliminate some incidents altogether. John Kendall rounds up the current developments. A few weeks ago, I watched a driver reverse a car from a parking bay at right angles to the road, straight into a car driving along the road. The accident happened at walking pace, no-one was hurt and both cars had body panels that regain their shape after a low speed shunt.
  • March 17, 2015
    The weighty problem of truck routing enforcement
    The growing impact of heavy commercial vehicles on urban and interurban highway infrastructures around the world is driving the need for reliable route access restriction and monitoring. The support role of enforcement is proving fertile ground for ITS development. Bridges are especially vulnerable – and critical in terms of travel delays. The US state of Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) operates what it claims is one of the country’s most aggressive truck route restriction enforcement programme
  • May 31, 2013
    Connected cones make for safer sites
    David Crawford welcomes new lives for old road safety products. Traffic cones and barrels have traditionally been on the bottom shelf of the road construction and maintenance industry, typically forming visible soft safety barriers for temporary works at a lower cost than concrete alternatives. On both sides of the Atlantic, however, they are fast gaining new roles as instrumented components in advanced construction safety arrays. The EC-sponsored €1 million (US$1.31 million) Safelane collaborative innovati
  • January 31, 2012
    More flexible workzone protection
    Impact protection vehicles, often the only form of protection between workers and traffic in many road maintenance and repair operations, are designed to arrest an errant car or truck. Truck-mounted attenuators have been used for many years, but as Brent Kulp of Traffix Devices points out, advances in trailer attenuators, such as on his company's Scorpion, provide the same protection, at lower cost but with much greater flexibility. He points to the Scorpion's unique curved design, which not only redirects