Start Garden invests in emergency response for motorcycles

Start Garden invests in emergency response for motorcycles

A rider leans in on a Honda VFR750R motorcycle. Photo via commons.wikimedia.org

Motorcyclists may never ride alone again.

Craig Searer, a sales accountant at Belwith Prodcuts, wanted to create a mobile system that would decrease the response time for high-fatality-rate motorcycle accidents and save lives.

Echoing the military’s battle-buddy system, Searer’s system, Buddy Up, would function in a similar way, placing an automatic call to emergency providers, like an emergency OnStar for motorcycles.

“Motorcyclists are 35 times more likely to experience a deadly accident on the road than those in passenger cars, and the first minutes are among the most critical for an injured rider,” Searer writes on his Start Garden page.

The Start Garden team liked Searer’s idea and invested $5,000 into the technology's development last week.

Searer plans to use the money to create a prototype and survey motorcyclists and other sports enthusiasts to see if the system couple be applied to other fields.

“The way it would make money is the sale of the unit itself, paired with a charge for the call center,” Searer writes.

Buddy Up would use Bluetooth Smart technology, which would “pair to your smartphone and use your smartphones GPS” and be “integrated into a helmet or directly on the motorcycle,” Searer writes.

Searer would like to start with motorcycles and move to “adventure sports,” such as cycling, ATV riding and paragliding.

The technology is also personal for Searer.

“A close friend of mine almost lost his life in a motorcycle accident,” Searer writes. “Buddy Up comes out of necessity for motorcycle riders everywhere.”