A dead man's switch, dead man's pedal, dead man's handle (in the United Kingdom), or simply a deadman is a device intended to take a specific action in case the human operator becomes incapacitated in some way; a form of fail-safe practice. Because the action is often to slow down or stop a vehicle, this is also sometimes known as a dead man's brake. A Device can be taken to mean: an electrical device designed to carry power, but not use it. ... Safety engineering is used to assure that a life-critical system behaves as needed even when pieces fail. ...

In some countries, most freight elevators, lawn mowers, jet skis and snowblowers use a dead man's switch or similar mechanism that causes them to slow down and stop moving if the switch is released. Thus, if an accident occurs and causes somebody to faint or become separated from the vehicle, it will not continue down its path, potentially worsening the situation. petrol-powered push rotary mower. ... Jet ski is the brand name of Kawasaki Heavy Industries personal water craft. ... A snow blower, snowblower, or snow thrower is a machine for removing snow from an area where it is not wanted, such as a driveway, sidewalk, roadway, or runway. ... Syncope is also a linguistic term with a different meaning. ...

A very common use is in a locomotive; for that use, see dead-man's control. A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train, and has no payload capacity of its own; its sole purpose is to move the train along the tracks. ... This article is about the railway failsafe device, for the more general use, see dead mans switch A dead-mans control (Also: controller, switch, pedal, or handle) is a mechanical, electro-mechanical or electronic device designed to stop a railroad train in the event the train operator acts...

Software versions of dead man's switches are used generally only by people with technical expertise, and serve several purposes, such as sending a notification to friends or deleting and encrypting data. The non-event triggering these can be almost anything, such as failing to log in for a week consecutively, not responding to an automated e-mail ping, a GPS-enabled telephone not moving for a period of time, or merely failing to type a code within a few minutes of a computer's boot. Motivations vary, depending on the individual's needs. For example, somebody in a police state may be concerned about locking up his or her data securely (or deleting it), while others may just wish to alert friends or the authorities by e-mail that something undesirable might be going on. Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... In cryptography, encryption is the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. ... Note: to sign yourself into Wikipedia, go to the login page. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... ping in a Windows 2000 command window Ping is the name of a computer network tool used on TCP/IP networks (such as the Internet). ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A BOOTING is any exercise of the verb to boot. ...

Dead man's switch devices have also been used in suicide bombing, to trigger the explosive if the bomber is shot or overpowered. This is a fail-deadly mechanism, rather than a fail-safe mechanism. A suicide bombing is an attack using a bomb in which the individual(s) carrying the explosive materials composing the bomb intend(s) and expect(s) to die upon detonation (see suicide). ... Fail Deadly is a concept in military strategy which encourages deterrence by guaranteeing an immediate, automatic and overwhelming response to an attack. ...

See also

• Penalty switch