The Rumbler Wakes Up Even the Most Clueless Drivers

Distracted by your loud radio, jangling cellphone or that lovely scone you’re munching on? The Boston Police Department has a new way to rouse you out of your drivers seat stupor–it’s called The Rumbler.

Today’s Boston Globe showed a police officer with the initials RJS on his sleeve holding what looks like one of those 1960s era sirens that sat atop the Ford Galaxie 500 cruisers. This is the Rumbler, a device that emits both a sonic and an earth-shaking rumble to alert motorists that a cruiser with his blue lights on is barreling down on them.

More than 150 police departments have embraced the new technology, said the Globe story, since as one Boston Police official said, “people are just not hearing us.” With the activation of the rumbler, there is no way you cannot tell you’re being tailed by blue lights. One blogger said he thought he was being attacked by a giant sea monster when he heard and felt the noise on the street below.

“Our society is so loud that public safety officials need to up the ante in order to get somebody’s attention,” said a member of the Noise Free America organization. “It’s kind of ominous.”