Patent ID: 6958676

Claim:
A system for verifying whether a vehicle and its occupants are authorized to enter a secure area, comprising: a multi-zone staging area preceding the secure area and having two or more lanes in which vehicles may travel; a means for delivering information to occupants in the vehicle; a means for collecting identifying information from the vehicle while the vehicle is moving through said multi-zone staging area; a means for collecting identifying information from the occupants in the vehicle while the vehicle is moving through said multi-zone staging area; and a means for communicating the information collected by said means for collecting identifying information from the vehicle and the information collected by said means for collecting identifying information from the occupants in the vehicle to a processing center for analysis; wherein the vehicle and its occupants are identified while the vehicle is moving through the multi-zone staging area such that information required to decide whether the vehicle and its occupants are authorized to enter the secure area is collected and analyzed without requiring the vehicle to stop in said multi-zone staging area, and wherein said multi-zone staging area comprises: a data collection zone for gathering the identifying information from the vehicle and the identifying information from the occupants in the vehicle; and a clearance zone for informing the occupants whether the vehicle is permitted to pass to the secure area.