The S-1 Gard (also known as the Dangerzone Deflector and the People Catcher) is a safety device consisting of a curved polyurethane guard, mounted in front of the right rear wheels of transit buses, designed to deflect a person out of the path of the wheels in order to prevent injury or death.
It is distributed by Public Transportation Safety International (PTS) and is currently installed on bus fleets in major cities such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago,[1] Austin (TX) and Baltimore,[2] among others.
[5] The accidents most often occur as buses are making right-hand turns, when pedestrians who are not fully on the sidewalk or who fall into the street risk being run over by the right rear wheels of the bus.
The curvature of the guard is designed to counteract Bernoulli's principle by producing a net outward pressure away from the direction of travel of the bus,[9] in addition to physically pushing an object out of the way.
The S-1 Gard is noted by the Transportation Research Board as a strategy [10] designed to reduce the severity but not the likelihood of injuries resulting from accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists coming in contact with the rear right wheels of transit buses only.