Pedal box for vehicle etc

Claim 1

A safety pedal structure for a vehicle having a front engine compartment and a driver/passenger compartment, said structure comprising a pedal box having a front portion intended, when installed in a vehicle, to be remote from said driver/passenger compartment, and a rear portion intended to be adjacent said driver/passenger compartment, said pedal box incorporating at least one pedal pivotally mounted intermediate its ends on a pedal pin carried by said pedal box so as to have, beyond each side of said pedal pin, a lower pedal part carrying a footpad, and an upper pedal part, and further comprising an activation device comprising a cam and a link intermediate said cam and said upper pedal part, said link comprising first and second linearly spaced-apart pins, said first pin in an inactive position of said safety pedal structure, being located, with clearance in a slot in said upper pedal part to permit unimpeded movement of said pedal about its pivot pin, said second pin being located closer to said engine compartment than said first pin, whilst said cam is adapted, in use, to be secured to a portion of said vehicle designed to deform in a frontal impact of sufficient magnitude, with a surface of said cam normally engaging said second pin, wherein, when a frontal impact of sufficient magnitude occurs, movement of said cam towards said driver/passenger compartment as a result of deformation of said portion of said vehicle designed to deform effects some rotation of said link causing said first pin to strike an abutment surface provided by a bottom of said slot, to cause some rotation of said pedal to a safety position, with said lower portion of said pedal rotated towards said engine compartment.