Have you ever driven through a tunnel and wondered what might happen if somehow you got stuck inside? Residents of Sydney, Australia have had to face these fears somewhat regularly as they enter the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. The tunnel was constructed as a way of alleviating traffic on the harbor bridge but quickly became a preferred method of travel for many, including truckers. The difficulty with these big rigs is that there are occasions where the interior of the tunnel cannot support the frame of the truck. Bob Allen, the general manager of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, has had to be persistent with checking truck sizes as there have been as many as three to four big rig related collisions per month in the tunnel. These collisions can cost up to millions of dollars in repairs and leave the tunnel in disarray for several weeks.

Traditional measures like stop signs and lights were taken outside of the tunnel but proved ineffective at stopping drivers at times. "We realized that traditional signage wasn’t enough after the reality check of a fire incident and the impact of several high trucks," said Allen. So in order to maintain public safety and tunnel infrastructure, Allen looked to LaserVision for help. And help they did. LaserVision delivered the first of what could be the future of emergency stop signage; an in-your-face, holograph-like projected "Stop" sign that hovers in front of both lanes prior to the entrance of the tunnel. This marvel of modern sign technology, called Softstop, projects the image onto a water screen, so it would cause no damage to vehicles should they continue moving. But perhaps its most interesting feature is its effectiveness. "[The system was] activated 8 times in 8 weeks, with 100% success," said Allen after a test case was performed. When speaking about an incident with a fire inside the tunnel, Allen commented that "if we had Softstop at the time and we had been able to stop that truck before it hit the portal, the incident could have been all over within 10 minutes instead of 2 hours. Softstop would have made a huge saving to the community."