As is perhaps well known, there have recently been several notorious chases of fleeing vehicles whose drivers refuse to stop or try to outrun the police. Some of the most famous chases involved armed and dangerous criminals who had virtually nothing to lose by using their vehicle to crash through classic police roadblocks which often resulted in bodily injury and great property damage.
The classic police roadblock by which police cars are parked across a roadway results in blockage of all vehicular traffic and thereby often causes congestion of citizen drivers at the roadblock who must either be allowed to pass by movement of police cars or risk physical harm in any subsequent confrontation between the police and the driver of a fleeing vehicle. In other words, classic police roadblocks are non-selective, cause congestion and often result in more injury than they are worth.
Accordingly, the prior art reveals attempts to replace classic police roadblocks with a selective and safe means for stopping a fleeing vehicle by puncturing its tires. A preferred device in use today is known as a spike strip and there are several variations, none of which have the advantages of the present invention. One of the earlier known spike strips simply consisted of a narrow length of flat rubber or fabric base containing a multitude of nails oriented in the same direction so that the strip could be coiled for storage in a trunk of a police car, but upon approach of a fleeing vehicle, the coil could be rolled across a roadway in the path of the vehicle whereby the nails would puncture the tires. However, in practice, it soon became apparent that a coil of nails had several inherent problems. First, the nails often snagged upon each other as the coil was unwound and often ensnared itself on other items. Secondly, someone had to physically place the outstretched strip with nails upright in the path of an oncoming vehicle which was usually driven at a very high speed, thereby allowing a few seconds to complete the task. Thirdly, even when initial contact is made between the strip and the fleeing vehicle, it was often seen that solid nails alone did not deflate the tires rapidly enough and the vehicle would continue for several more miles before being disabled. Fourthly, this type of coiled spike strip was non-selective in that any innocent vehicle ahead of the fleeing vehicle on the same roadway would obviously contact the nails and thereby most often result in the entire strip being adhered to the tires and dislodged from the roadway.
In the past, various patents have issued relating to devices for the rapid stopping of vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,714, issued on May 10, 1983 to W. G. Hutchison, describes a vehicle disabling device in the form of a plurality of spike-like devices adapted to project perpendicular to a road surface to puncture one or more tires of a fleeing vehicle. A plurality of the devices are interconnected for ease in putting in place and removing as well as creating a flailing effect when engaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,303, issued on Oct. 1, 1985 to F. G. Glasmire, describes a protective traffic barrier designed to divert motor vehicle traffic away from an object or roadway. This device employs a base with wedge-shaped projections extending vertically from the base so as to impede the movement of a motor vehicle across the barrier. The shape of the base may be designed to fulfill a particular function including an opening to allow the barrier to fit over an object to be protected. A resilient cover encapsulates the base so as to protect people or animals from contact injury with the wedge-shaped projections.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,774, issued on Jun. 23, 1992 to J. J. Dubiel, teaches an apparatus for the puncturing of tires. This apparatus employs a plurality of spaced tubular supports which are secured together by a flexible tether line. The respective outer distal tubular support members include a respective outer tether line that is in turn secured to a spike member for projection into the ground surface on opposed sides of a highway structure. Plural pairs of spaced parallel spikes define an acute angle therebetween.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,385, issued on Jun. 21, 1994 to R. Reisman, describes an anti-vehicle barrier that includes a pad made of a compressible material. An array of upwardly directed hollow metal spikes are distributed throughout the pad so as to puncture the tire of a vehicle which rides over the pad. The spikes may be removable so that upon puncturing the tire, they are removed from the pad and retained by the punctured tire so as to bring about its rapid deflation. When deployed in the pad, the spikes are flush with or are below the top surface of the pad.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,292, issued on Jul. 12, 1994 to F. R. Williams, teaches a traffic barrier which gives law-enforcement officers an effective traffic barrier which can be easily carried in the trunk of a car and quickly deployed across a roadway. The chain is simply stretched across the roadway at a right angle to the direction of traffic and pulled tight. The traffic barrier chain is designed so that no matter how the chain is placed on the road surface, half of the splines will be facing the direction of traffic flow at an angle of 45 degrees.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,102, issued on Mar. 12, 1996 to S. Bissell, teaches a tire puncturing spike strip which can be placed on a road surface in front of a moving vehicle. The spike strip is composed of rectangular modular frame units with low height for easy storage in a trunk of a police vehicle. The frame units have interlocking ends which can be quickly assembled in any desired length for placement across a roadway with spikes in a normal down position to allow safe passage of vehicles over the strip. The spikes may be selectively and remotely activated to their up position electromechanically by an operator to target a specific fleeing vehicle. Once the fleeing vehicle crosses over the strip, the spikes may be electromechanically returned to their down position to allow pursuing police cars to safely cross over the strip and apprehend the disabled vehicle.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle stopping device which rapidly brakes the fleeing vehicle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle stopping device which is capable of selective deployment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle stopping device which serves to stop both large and small vehicles.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle stopping device which can be folded so as to be easily stored in the trunk of a law enforcement vehicle.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle stopping device which can be deployed by a single person.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle stopping device which is easy to use, easy to manufacture and relatively inexpensive.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.