Anti-traffic jam firm expands nationally

UNIVERSITY PARK — Stop Rubbernecking, an area firm behind a portable barrier system designed to conceal roadside accidents, recently closed several sales in California, which adds to its ongoing national expansion.

The firm, co-founded by Carl Cannova, former president and CEO of Palmetto-based Sysco Food Services-West Coast Florida, sold its SRN1000 to police departments in Culver City, Oxnard, Indio and Inglewood, Calif. It also sold the patent-pending product, a privacy screen that's quickly deployed to block accident scenes and other restricted areas from public views, to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, according to a release.

The SRN1000, the company adds, has now been purchased by 13 law enforcement agencies in Florida, including the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and police departments in Daytona Beach and Green Acres. Other recent clients include the DuPont Police Department in DuPont, Wash.; Apache Junction, Prescott and Tolleson Police Departments in Arizona; the Dallas Police Department; the Las Vegas Coroner's Office; the Las Vegas VA Medical Center; and the Pratt County Sheriff's Office in Kansas.

Cannova founded Stop Rubbernecking with his wife, Tommie Cannova, in 2011. The product was designed by Sarasota-based RoBrady and debuted in early 2013. Clients are nationwide and in Bermuda and London.

“We are implementing this inventive product with the department's current safety measures and procedures,” Culver City Police Department Lt. Milton Mckinnon says in the release. “There has always been a need for privacy screens, and the growth of social media and photo sharing websites amplifies this need. The SRN1000 will allow us to better protect our citizens by shielding accident and crime scenes.”