The Clever Invention To Stop Hit And Run Drivers That Never Caught On
Nearly a century ago, an enterprising inventor attempted to make drivers take responsible for car crashes with a very simple innovation
The ingenuity of humans can be awe-inspiring to behold. There have been so many brilliant innovations over the years designed to solve problems and generally make life easier. Sometimes, these inventions are embraced broadly, and in other instances they just aren’t adopted in any meaningful way by society. That was unfortunately the case nearly a century ago when a New Jersey lawyer developed a clever way to deter hit and run drivers, but it just never caught on.
As long as there have been motorized vehicles, there have been issues with drivers hitting things with them and not always taking responsibility. A lawyer from New Brunswick, New Jersey decided to do something about this. It was reported in 1930 that William J. Fitzgerald, who also dabbled as an inventor, developed a tiny mechanism aimed at stopping those who hit and ran with only a few bits of paper.
The gadget devised by Fitzgerald was a tiny tube of about only an inch in diameter. It was fastened to the front bumper of the vehicle, and when jarred violently, it sent out a burst of 25 paper…
