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Hi, I'm Ben, a senior at the University of Central Florida and this summer I rollerbladed 500 miles to raise funds for our senior design project: LABBRA Intersection
Every day I cross Alafaya trail (SR 434) to get to school. My commute to campus is only a quarter mile, but I've had more close calls at that intersection than I can count. Many other students have shared this experience but unfortunately some can never again. Brooke Dawkins was one of those students who was tragically killed near campus and everyday I pass her memorial on my commute.
Over the last two years I've skated over 1500 miles across the state of Florida. Back in February of 2024 I was about halfway through a 48-mile skate when I crossed an intersection where a vehicle didn’t yield. To avoid a collision, I was forced to turn towards the A1A and go into the grass shoulder. I wish I could say that was the only time I had a close call, but those occurrences happened almost every weekend when I went out skating.
Hundreds of hours across Florida sidewalks and trails introduced me to countless Memorial Markers. I began to wonder just how bad this problem was across the state and near campus and when I saw the attached images...
(map of pedestrian deaths) the fire was lit in me.
I got angry.
- That you could see US-19 near where I grew up, paved in dots.
- That Nationally about one pedestrian is killed every hour.
- That 24% of those were hit and runs, often delaying the 911 call.
- That we’d have to wait sometimes a decade to see infrastructure and more than double that to see education change.
The problem
- Pedestrian deaths and severe injuries are on the rise.
- Communities and Economies are strained and harmed.
- EMS response times are often too slow in critical situations like hit and runs.
- There’s no infrastructure in place to address delays in the 911 call.
The LABBRA Intersection is a solution I believe could change the outcome of critically injured pedestrians and drivers.
LABBRA was born out of tragedy. Several students and pedestrians near UCF lost their lives in traffic incidents that should’ve never have happened. LABBRA is the initials of 6 of those lost. Like London Harrell and Brooke Dawkins in which we are proud partners with their respective foundations (BROOKESTRONG and LiveLikeLondon).
LABBRA is our concept for the first 5D situational awareness traffic system, tracking space, time, motion, heat, and sound to detect and respond to accidents at intersections and we need your help to make it real.
Where funds go
• $5,000 for hardware, sensors, and testing tools
Note on Donations
All contributions are personal gifts to support our UCF senior design project. No goods, services, or products will be provided in return.
• We are in talks with a few major organizations on complete hardware sponsorship. If our hardware is fully sponsored by one of those orgs, all extra funds raised will go directly supporting families/foundations we’re working to honor.
You Can Also Support the Foundations That Inspired This Project:
• Live Like London Foundation – livelikelondon
• BROOKESTRONG Foundation – brookestrong
Learn more at:
Co-organizers (2)
Benjamin Mingst
Organizer
Orlando, FL
Andres Aguirre Rincon
Co-organizer