Latest Spike strip Stories

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In 2010, Martin Martinez and the Engineering Science Corporation (ESC) began showing off the first iteration of a product meant to help law enforcement safely and quickly stop a fleeing vehicle, particularly at border crossings. It was called SQUID – Safe, Quick, Undercarriage Immobilization Device – and worked better than the traditional spike strip by stopping the spinning drives of a car, like the axel, rather than stopping...

A tire spike strip to keep burglars out of a San Francisco-area apartment complex has been bad for residents and good for local tire shops, residents say. Al Ross, who lives at Mesa Verde in Hayward, said that he lost two tires on Christmas Day. He had to pay $268 for new tires and more money to have his car towed to the shop. This has happened to dozens of us, he told The Daily Review. Mesa Verde residents returning home are supposed to swipe a card that signals the spikes to recede in the...

Thanks in part to NASA research, law enforcement now has better "teeth" to take a bite out of crime. A tire deflation device (TDD) is a strip that contains embedded metal spikes. The strip is thrown over the road in front of a speeding vehicle, deflating the tires and forcing it to stop. This device lets law enforcement stop a speeding vehicle safely, often without the need of a dangerous high-speed pursuit. The goal of the design is to keep spikes attached to the strip unless a...