Nestor Traffic Systems Offers Video-Based Monitoring Solution
to Detect and Enforce Rail Crossing Violations
Nestor Traffic Systems, Inc., a partially-owned subsidiary of Nestor, Inc.
(OTC: NEST), today announced that DuPage County, Illinois has awarded a
contract to the Company for its Rail CrossingGuard automated rail crossing
enforcement system. Rail CrossingGuard will be installed at the Highlake
Road and Sunset Avenue crossing, identified as one of the Countys
high-risk crossings based on train and vehicle traffic volume. Developed
specifically to address the devastating safety problems at rail crossings,
Rail CrossingGuard is an extension of CrossingGuard®, Nestors
automated red light enforcement solution, which has been customized to monitor
vehicle traffic and rail crossing signals to detect and record signal violations.
CrossingGuard is the industrys first automated enforcement solution
to use video to monitor and detect violations, to record violation images,
to transmit digital images electronically in real-time, and to issue citations.
Studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Federal
Rail Administration (FRA) report that there are approximately 261,000 highway-rail
and pedestrian crossings in the United States. From 1993 to 1998, there were
25,001 highway-rail crossing incidents involving motor vehicles averaging
4,167 incidents a year. In the US alone, a train collides with a vehicle or
person once every 2 hours, and in an average year, more people die at highway-rail
crossings than in commercial airline crashes.
"Using technology to address the potentially life threatening behavior
of signal violators at rail crossings is an effective step towards improving
rail crossing safety. Additionally, Rail CrossingGuards video technology
provides communities with the unique opportunity to "see" what is
actually happening at their crossings," said James Hooper, industry expert,
founder and president of Sakonnet Technology Group. "Not only does the
system provide a level of signal enforcement that may not otherwise be possible,
but it can also allow users to assess equipment status and monitor signal/gate
timing. With this type of real-time information, officials are able to make
proactive decisions and adjustments that directly affect the safety and efficiency
of their crossings."
Rail CrossingGuard uses advanced video-processing technology and video cameras
to detect and track vehicles as they approach a rail crossing. If a violation
is detected, Rail CrossingGuard records a brief video sequence of the violation,
including close-up color images of both the front and rear license plates of
the vehicle, as well as driver images if it is a legislative requirement of
the city/town. All violation video images are automatically transmitted in digital
format via high-speed phone lines from the crossing to a central processing
facility, where a citation is developed and issued to the violator.
Rail CrossingGuards automated enforcement application is the first in
the series of Nestors rail safety products. Other applications in the
planning and development stages include solutions for crossing monitoring to
gather operational data (signal and gate function status) and traffic trends/driver
behavior; alarm generation that will activate warning sirens and transmit warnings
to central monitoring facilities and approaching trains; and a control solution
that will pre-empt nearby roadway traffic signals to flush traffic queues to
prevent traffic backups on the crossing.
The Rail CrossingGuard family of products have been developed with partial
support from the Transportation Research Boards IDEA (Innovations Deserving
Exploratory Analysis) Program.
Certain information in this press release may include forward-looking statements
within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although
the Company believes that the expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions,
it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved.
About Nestor Traffic Systems
Nestor Traffic Systems, Inc., a partially-owned subsidiary of Nestor, Inc.
and headquartered in Providence, RI, is an emerging leader in providing
innovative, video-based monitoring systems and services for traffic management
and safety. Its products incorporate Nestors patented neural-network
technology into intelligent, real-time solutions that promote traffic efficiency
and intersection safety. Its TrafficVision® solution is a
real-time, video-based traffic management system that assists transportation
agencies in improving safety, monitoring traffic flow, managing congestion,
responding to incidents, and planning for maximum highway efficiency. And
the Companys CrossingGuard solution offers video-based intersection
monitoring and automated enforcement of red light running violations with
a built-in safety feature that helps to prevent intersection collisions.
Nestor products are sold direct and by selected partners worldwide. For
more information, call 401-331-9640 or visit www.nestor.com