It would cost £5 to equip each new car with the Rearguard system compared to the £1.3 billion a year that shunt accidents cost UK taxpayers.
But its inventor claims Whitehall red tape is making it difficult for the invention to be given the green light because it does not meet stringent build-quality standards for vehicle products.
The Rearguard system is activated when a driver moves his or her foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal. An infra-red beam is broken that activates two lights to the side of the vehicle's high-level rear brake light. This gives a vital early warning to other drivers that braking is about to take place, its designer claims.
Rear-shunt accidents account for between 20% and 25% of all vehicle accidents and are the most common cause of injuries. The system has been on trial for three years with the Transport Research Laboratory in conjunction with the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
Experts from Bosch, Delphi, Saab, Autoliv/Volvo and UK Safer City also support the system. The development of the system is virtually complete and Liberty Garden, the company behind the device, is appealing for a manufacturer to support it.
John Birtles, the system's inventor and managing director of Liberty Garden, said: 'High-mileage fleet drivers who spend most of their time on the motorway, where probably 90% of shunt accidents take place, would benefit from this early warning system.'
David O'Gorman, head of transport for the John Lewis Partnership, said that as soon as Rearguard was rubber-stamped by the Government he would fit it to his fleet of 700 cars.
Birtles has already met with Citroen UK's managing director Alain Favey and technical services manager George Whiteside to discuss the system.
But a spokesman for the manufacturer said: 'Citroen is always interested in looking at new ideas but it has no plans to fit the Rearguard system to its vehicles.'
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