Again solar powered cars are in the center of attention, just this time not to be praised, but quite the opposite. It’s been considered that the goal of that type of cars is to be as light and fast as possible, but being all that what’s left for safety measures. And to be honest safety is definitely not one of the subjects that have been a major topic when talking about solar powered cars. But indeed they are cars and indeed accidents happen. An example for that is what happened on august 12th 2004 when the University of Toronto’s Blue Sky Solar Racing team was taking a victory lap to show off each of their solar-powered race cars. Andrew Frow, a U-of-T mechanical engineering student, was driving Blue Sky’s Faust II, a single-seat, wedge-shaped vehicle, covered in photovoltaic cells. At around 4:30 pm, witnesses report, Frow began swerving.For reasons that have never been fully determined, he pulled out of the convoy and into oncoming traffic, striking a Chrysler minivan head-on. The minivan’s driver was unhurt, but unfortunately Frow was killed instantly.

This was actually the first and for now only fatal accident, but it brought up many questions about the safety of the cars and especialy the safety mesures taken during the solar car races. Fact is that many of those cars are simply not sutable for the terains the drivers are racing on during those events. The terains being twisty and curvy, the drivers wanting to give their team a good start and a car not safe enough by any standarts is just an accident waiting to happen. But there is hope. Measures have been taken and untill finding a better solution the sponsors of the events are tightening the safety regulations and are insisting on every driver to have a roll cage, wear a helmet and a five point harnesses. Hopefully that will give results and become the first part of making solar cars safer even for the mass public and not just for the sake of races. If this is gonna be the future’s transport, the one thing we need most is for it to be safe.