"Hell Toupee" wrote in message
...
On 9/13/2011 1:00 PM, Robert Green wrote:

So here's the question. Has anyone ever seen or even thought about
designing a home-brewed "safe" stairway? I've been thinking about a
collection of airbags (or one superlarge one) at the bottom of the
stairs,
triggered by some sort of detector circuit that could detect a human
falling
down the stairs faster than normal walking. You might still get banged
up
pretty badly, but the maximum damage, from what little I could find
about
the subject, seems to occur when you hit bottom.

It'd be cheaper and easier to outfit the fall-prone person with an
airbag vest, like the ones made for motorcyclists and horseback riders:

http://www.bikebone.com/page/BBSC/CTGY/AT

Basically, it has a built-in airbag with cervical neck support.
There's a lanyard running from the jacket or vest that the rider
attaches to the saddle. A gentle pull won't deploy the airbag, but a
sudden jerk will. When the person is thrown from the saddle, the
airbag deploys and the person skids/tumbles on the bag.

In either scenario, the challenge is figuring out how to trigger the
airbag when needed. Perhaps a built-in accelerometer. They use those
in laptops, to detect sudden motion (suggesting it will fall to the
ground). It tells the computer to temporarily shut down the hard drive
to protect it from the imminent shock.

Those are some pretty cool ideas. Since my friend said it took him close to
three years to get his dad to wear "that stupid thingamagig" (pendant) hopes
are not high for getting him to wear a "StaPuff Marshmellow Suit." (-: My
friend said that even though this his is third serious fall, his dad still
does not think of himself as "fall prone."

The horseback suit sounds really interesting and, AFAIK, fulfills a real
need. The actor who accident. I've seen a horrific film of a horseback
accident in slow motion once. It still freaks me to remember seeing someone
with their head at an angle unknown among the living. The actor that played
Superman, Christopher Reeves, ended up paralyzed from the neck down in a
horse riding accident. Every time I watch America's Funniest Home Videos I
cringe because so many of the films they send in are so similar to
evidentiary films submitted in wrongful death suits. Some of those "cute"
old people fall down and kids skateboarding off railings films could have
been tragedies except for an inch or two one way or another. Who would have
thought an adult could get paralyzed from playing with a slip and slide (or
that the family would have film of it)?

People riding horses very often land head first with lots of momentum in
their bodies that can snap the spine near the neck, causing instant death or
severe paralysis. I'd put lots of velcro on the saddle and my butt if I were
still riding. (-: There's just not a lot of protection when riding a
horse. I'm glad to know that someone's tried to tackle the problem.

Thanks for your input!

--
Bobby G.