Near accident sparks idea for motor vehicle safety
BY REBECCA MORTON
Staff Writer

Your car starts clinking and making all sorts of horrific noises as you drive down a busy highway. The best thing you can do is pull off on the side of the road, but that is a move that can sometimes be risky.

Knowing that, two area residents sought to come up with a safety product for motorists to use in that type of situation.

What Shayle Durkin of Farmingdale and John Kalli of Marlboro developed is a roadside alert system. Their invention, Heads Up!, attaches quickly to a car window with suction cups and a bracket. The device extends a flag with a strobe light on a telescopic rod and allows passing motorists to see the signal and to be aware that someone has pulled over.

Durkin, a graduate of Howell High School, came up with the idea for the safety device one night as he was coming over the Garden State Parkway's Driscoll Bridge in Middlesex County.

"An SUV pulled out from in front of me in the far right lane. Suddenly a vehicle that had broken down in the same lane that I was in appeared right in front of me. As I screeched almost sideways to avoid hitting the disabled car, I literally said, 'God, there has to be a better way for people to protect themselves in these situations,' " Durkin said in a press release.

He began to develop the idea for what eventually became Heads Up!, keeping in mind that it would have to raise high enough over the vehicle to ensure other drivers would see it. Durkin's industrial background came in handy, as he said, "I thought the only way to really do it was with a telescopic pole."

"I didn't want to license the product when I realized I could do it on my own. I knew I could start up my own business," he said.

Durkin knew Kalli through church. Kalli, who has experience running companies, told Durkin about a program in Los Angeles where he could learn how to move forward with his idea.

"I told him because I knew it was a great place for meeting contacts and to get help in formulating a business. Also it was a good way to get legal help both in the corporate world and on the patent," Kalli said.

Durkin headed to Los Angeles in May 2006.

Following its design, their invention won several awards at the Invention and New Product Exposition (INPEX) in Pittsburgh. Heads Up! was honored in the automotive, personal safety, security, novelty and specialty gifts categories. Durkin and Kalli also took home an award for excellence in international commercialization.

The men are now trying to come up with new ways to improve upon Heads Up! They have developed an industrial version which snaps onto the side of trucks, rather than relying on the suction cups.

"We're also going to do a spin-off of the original with a GPS distress beacon. This way if people get lost and break down, which does happen often, the service that we partner with will be able to locate them and send help," Durkin explained.

"It's a product that's unique, anything similar to it isn't as good in my opinion. Ours marks the location further away, so that drivers can see above any larger SUVs. We're hoping it saves lives and prevents accidents. That's what we really want," Kalli said.

Heads Up! is expected to be released for consumers in early 2008.