Ken Southworth, a former garbage truck driver, has no problem handling a big rig. But when he was tired during one RV trip and handed the keys over to his wife, Bana, he couldn’t take it. “I told her to pull over and let me drive,� he said. “She couldn’t stay on the road.�
That moment of crisis gave birth to innovation for the 74-year-old retiree from Maine who now lives in Weslaco.
Shortly afterward, he affixed a piece of tape on the window to show Bana where the white center line on the road was. That piece of tape later evolved into the Lane Seeker, an adjustable, stick-on gauge and light that shows drivers of large vehicles how close they are to the traffic lines.
The Lane Seeker, Southworth said, is the newest invention promising to create a new era of safety in motor homes. Motor homes are almost twice as wide as a normal car and keeping them within the lanes on the road can be difficult, he said.
Now he’s trying to market his invention to various outdoor and RV stores, but unsuccessfully. He said he doesn’t want to dedicate thousands of his own dollars to market a product.
Southworth has sold about 1,000 of the devices, but still has a few thousand left to sell. He has worked with some smaller distributors, but just hasn’t gotten the big break he needs, he said.
Photo by Joel Martinez.
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