 Shopping for new ideas, for maintenance, engineering, communication, equipment, administration, training, safety. If you are, then welcome to the Idea Store. A store whose stock and trade is imagination. This is edition 9 of the Idea Store. And unlike other editions, we have only one shopping stop to make. Safety. We talk about an item that is all too common. Backing accidents. Incidents where equipment is damaged, where the maintenance budget is reduced, and the injury rate increased. All of this is a result of an all too preventable situation. Maybe backing accidents can't be eliminated, but they might be reduced by providing one last reminder to the operator before the accident can occur. Almost everyone in transportation at any level, local, state, or federal, has a few of these around the office. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation used miniature models of pieces of equipment like the front end loader, the dump truck, the grater, the backhoe, the school bus, the motor coach, the low buoy. And then, with the aid of a professional photographer, created silhouettes in black on a white background. Took copies of these to experience equipment operators so that they could indicate the blind spots. The blind spots were not meant to be clinically accurate. But to be a reminder, equipment manufacturers are constantly striving to produce equipment with better operating visibility for the operator. But even the best of the new units have blind spots. Not to mention the thousands of makes and models currently in use. The operator review committee considered all of this, made their recommendations, and then indicated the blind spots for the various pieces. These are blind spots present when the operator is properly positioned and the mirrors are properly adjusted. Even when the operator puts forth the extra effort. The worksheets were returned from the operators and the silhouettes were made into computer images. Reviewed again by the equipment operators and then enhanced at a CAD workstation. Commercially produced with the blind spots in red and made into a key chain. When the operator picks up the key for the equipment, the tag serves as a visual reminder of the size and the location of the blind spots for the equipment to be operated. And there is one more tip. Truly, what you can't see can hurt. Obviously, an idea store needs ideas. Here's how to get your idea on the program. Tell us who you are. Better yet, send us a picture. Give us a good description of what your idea is. Show us the where if the locale of the idea is important. Why was the idea done? For reasons of safety, cost benefits, etc. How do you do it? Show us step by step. Provide plans, pictures, whatever you think we might need to understand what it is you want us to understand. Send your idea to your Technology Transfer Center for evaluation. Thanks for shopping at the Idea Store. Until next time, remember an idea never shared is an idea never appreciated.