Abstract:
A safety guard which functions to push objects lying in the path of a vehicle out of the path of the wheels of the vehicle, such as a school bus, for safety purposes includes a front guard positioned at an angle in front of a wheel of the vehicle and is mounted to a side panel of the vehicle such that the frontal guard is supported in a cantilevered manner in front of the wheel. This configuration provides for a substantially universal mounting arrangement that can be particular advantageous in connection with school buses and other vehicles which are not provided with underbody frame and support structure closely adjacent to the vehicle wheel.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present invention claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/228,833 entitled “Cantilevered, Vehicle Side Mount Safety Guard” filed Jul. 27, 2009. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention pertains to the art of vehicle safety devices and, more particularly, to a safety device mounted to a side body panel of a vehicle and including a guard portion which is supported in front on a wheel set of the vehicle, in a cantilevered manner, for deflecting animate and inanimate objects from in front of the vehicle wheels. 
     2. Discussion of the Prior Art 
     Buses are commonly employed for various transportation purposes. For instance, buses are widely employed in metropolitan mass transit systems. Unfortunately, there are inherent dangers associated with the operation of buses. Many of the most serious of these injuries are a result of individuals being run over by the bus, such as when a person slips and falls in the road adjacent a wheel of the bus and the bus crushes a limb or other body part of the individual. Correspondingly, inanimate objects can also be crushed. 
     To address these concerns, it has been proposed in the art to mount a safety guard directly in front of wheels on a bus to establish a safety barrier between the wheels and objects. More specifically, as represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,462,324 and 5,735,560, it is known to mount a safety barrier to undercarriage structure of a vehicle, such as a bus, with the safety barrier including a lower edge extending directly along a ground surface. The safety barrier is fixedly supported at various locations, such as to axle, frame and/or suspension structure. The safety barrier is angled such that, if an object is encountered during movement of the bus, the safety barrier forces the object out from under the vehicle to a position out of the path of the vehicle wheels. 
     In addition to mass transit buses, school buses are widely employed in connection with transporting students for educational purposes. Of course, still other types of buses also exist. Certainly, each of these additional types of buses can benefit from incorporating safety guards. However, many of these buses, particularly school buses, are constructed in quite a different manner than most other buses. Although school buses could receive axle and/or suspension mounted safety guards, the undercarriage frame structure of school buses is distinct such that many of the advantageous methods of mounting safety guards as disclosed in the &#39;324 and &#39;560 patents are simply not well suited for this application. In particular, school buses have undercarriage body portions which are raised quite high, thereby making mounting a safety guard to this structure quite difficult. For at least this reason, various types of buses, particularly school buses, are simply not provided with these known safety guard devices, even though serious injuries and even deaths can be avoided with the use of the safety guards. 
     Based on the above, there exists the need for a more feasible mounting arrangement for a vehicle underbody safety guard. In particular, there is seen to exist a need for a safety barrier mounting arrangement which will enable safety guards to be readily mounted to a wide range of vehicles in an effective and substantially universal manner, thereby expanding the type of vehicles which can be equipped with injury and even lifesaving safety guards. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is directed to providing a safety guard for a vehicle, such as a school bus, including a front guard positioned at an angle in front of a wheel of the vehicle that will function to push individuals and inanimate objects lying in the path of the vehicle out of the path of the wheels for safety purposes. The safety guard is positioned close enough to the ground so that, if an object is encountered, the safety barrier forces the object out from under the vehicle and out of the wheel path. In accordance with the invention, the safety guard is mounted to a side panel of the vehicle such that the frontal guard is supported in a cantilevered manner in front of the wheels. This configuration provides for a substantially universal mounting arrangement that can be particular advantageous in connection with school buses and other vehicles which are not provided with underbody frame and support structure closely adjacent to the vehicle wheels. 
     While the invention has particular utility in school buses, it can also be used to prevent injuries in a wide range of vehicles. The safety guard can be mounted with a single side mounting plate, multiple interconnected mounting plates or integrated with a wheel cover. Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a school bus having mounted thereto a safety guard assembly in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a front perspective view of the safety guard assembly of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a rear perspective view of the safety guard assembly of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a portion of a school bus having mounted thereto a safety guard assembly in accordance with a second embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view of a portion of a school bus having mounted thereto a safety guard assembly in accordance with a third embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     With initial reference to  FIG. 1 , a vehicle  2 , shown as a school bus, has attached thereto a safety guard  5  constructed in accordance with the present invention. In general, vehicle  2  includes a body  7  having a front end  8  including a hood  10  beneath which is provided an engine (not shown), and front steerable wheels  12  and  13 . Behind front wheels  12  and  13  is shown a forward most side door  15  which leads to a middle section  17  of vehicle body  7  and a rear end section  19 . Supporting rear end section  19  is a pair of rear wheel assemblies  22  and  23 . Each rear wheel assembly  22 ,  23  is shown to include dual wheels  26  and  27  arranged in a wheel well  30  created in a side panel  33  of vehicle body  7 . Also provided in side panel  33  are various fore-to-aft spaced windows  36  which are vertically arranged below a roof  38 . More importantly, in accordance with the present invention, safety guard  5  includes a mounting plate  45 , a support post  47  and a frontal guard  50  as will be detailed below. 
     With reference to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , mounting plate  45  of safety guard  5  includes a side plate portion  52  provided with a plurality of spaced holes  54 - 57 , and a base plate portion  59  provided with holes  61 . In the embodiment shown, base plate portion  59  extends substantially perpendicular from side plate portion  52  such that mounting plate  45  is generally L-shaped in side-view. Support post  57  includes a first end  64  fixed to base plate portion  59  and a second end  65  that is secured to a corner body portion  68  of safety guard  5 . In addition to corner body portion  68 , safety guard  5  also includes a side body portion  70  and a frontal body portion  71  defining frontal guard  50 . As clearly shown in these figures, side body portion  70  includes an arcuate terminal edge  74  remote from frontal body portion  71 . 
     As best shown in  FIG. 3 , frontal guard  50  is also provided with an upper support gusset  78  and a lower support gusset  79 . More specifically, upper support gusset  78  tapers from a first end portion  83  to an intermediate portion  84  at a junction with corner body portion  68 . Intermediate portion  84  extends to a second end portion  85  within corner body portion  68 . In a similar manner, lower support gusset  79  extends from a first end portion  88  to an intermediate portion  89 , a second end portion  90  and further includes an extension portion  91  which projects along side body portion  70  below arcuate terminal edge  74 . 
     With this construction, safety guard  5  can be advantageously and efficiently mounted directly to side panel  33  of vehicle body  7 , such as in front of rear wheel assembly  22  as clearly shown in  FIG. 1 . More specifically, side plate portion  52  is positioned against side panel  33  and a plurality of mechanical fasteners  98  fixedly secure safety guard  5  to vehicle body  7  through holes  54 - 57 . At the same time, additional fasteners extend through holes  61  and  62  of base plate portion  59  and into a side panel support frame rail (not shown) in further fixing safety guard  5 . When mounting plate  45  is secured in this fashion, frontal guard  50  is positioned in front of wheels  26  and  27 , with arcuate terminal edge  74  being spaced from and conforming to wheel  26  at a lower forward portion. At the same time, frontal guard  50  is maintained a few inches, generally in the order of 3-5 inches, above a ground surface (not separately labeled), while being supported in a cantilevered manner through mounting plate  45  and support posts  47 . Therefore, even though vehicle  2  does not include frame and other structure located in a position which would enable underbody and multi-point attachments for frontal guard  50 , frontal guard  50  is still positioned in a manner which is slightly angled rearwardly and outwardly from a center line of vehicle  2  with this cantilevered mounting arrangement so as to effectively function to push individuals and/or inanimate objects which may lie in the path of vehicle  2  out of the path of wheels  26  and  27 , thereby preventing the individuals from being crushed or otherwise damaged by wheels  26  and  27  of vehicle  2 . 
     At this point, it should be recognized that the invention is particular concerned with providing a side mount for safety guard  5  that enables frontal guard  50  to be secured in front of wheels  26 ,  27  in a cantilevered manner. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, this object is obtained by integrally forming side body portion  70 , corner body portion  68  and frontal body portion  71 , into a combination wheel well cover and safety guard  102  as shown in  FIG. 4 . More specifically, combination wheel well cover and safety guard  102  includes a wheel well cover plate  104  provided with various mounting points  107 - 111  used to fixedly secure wheel well cover portion  102  to side panel  33 . In this manner, wheel well cover plate  104  covers approximately the upper half of wheel  26  while also fully supporting frontal guard  50  in a cantilevered manner. 
       FIG. 5  shows a third embodiment of the invention which is more similar to the embodiment of  FIGS. 1-3  in that frontal guard  50  is supported by post  47  and a first side plate  120  secured to side panel  33  to which is fixed a first end  121  of a cross bar  122 . Cross bar  122  includes a second end  127  that is fixed to a second side plate  129  that is also secured through various fasteners (not labeled) to side panel  33 . As clearly illustrated in  FIG. 5 , cross bar  122  is preferably provided with multiple apertures, such as those indicated at  133  and  134 , which can be utilized in mounting a wheel well cover (not separately shown) similar to that of the embodiment of  FIG. 4 , with the wheel well cover preferably extending over first and second side plates  120  and  129  for aesthetic purposes. 
     In connection with each of the embodiments disclosed, the overall safety guard is preferably formed as a one-piece unit which is mounted in front of select vehicle wheels and across a portion of the underbody, such as in the order of 2 feet, while having a minimal gap between the safety barrier and the ground. The frontal guard can be formed of plastic, rubber, urethane, aluminum or steel, although other known materials could be used to create a physical barrier strong enough to push a child or adult from in front of the wheels. For instance, it would be possible to manufacture at least a portion of the frontal guard from recycled tire rubber or fiberglass. To reduce the weight and thickness of the frontal guard, it is possible to employ an inner wire mesh for internal strengthening without sacrificing overall effectiveness. Although not shown, the support post could be telescoping or otherwise vertically adjustable for lowering or raising the front guard to accommodate road clearance issues. In the embodiments employing a wheel cover, threaded clamps can be employed in securing the wheel cover to the side panel to more readily accommodate various wheel well sizes on different makes and models of vehicles. In addition, it should be realized that the side mount can be either exposed to the outside of the vehicle or inside of an outermost side panel or covering. In any case, although described with reference to preferred embodiments of the invention, it should be readily understood that various changes and/or modifications can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit thereof. In general, the invention is only intended to be limited by the scope of the following claims.