The duty to have reflective materials on clothing is in law this February. But there are still many tragic accidents with “invisible” pedestrians. In most cases, pedestrians simply had no reflective elements. But as BESIP pointed out, some reflective tapes that pedestrians buy do not work as well as they should.
The reflective tape is one of the ways to meet the requirements of the new road law for pedestrians who go outside the village in low visibility. However, according to BESIP’s Department of Transport, not all tapes are the same.
They should be right at 200 meters. “There are also cases where the material works only within a distance of 60 to 70 meters,” said Martin, director of BESIP. How well the reflective tape is visible should give a leaflet, respectively marking directly on the tape. The elements that meet the European standard EN 13356 are well visible.
Top on foot
In addition to the tape itself, however, its location also plays a role. It may seem best to place it on your sleeve. But from a security point of view, this is not the case. Car headlights shine to the ground, so the legs are first seen. The reflective strap on the leg is the most effective solution that truly guarantees pedestrian visibility up to 200 meters.
Reflective strips handed over 300,000 to the police and BESIP staff this year. Yet many pedestrians still do not use them. For example, during a traffic safety event last week in the Ústí nad Labem region, police officers controlled 193 pedestrians, 111 of whom were “invisible”.
Your money or Your Life
For the time being, police officers usually need to talk. However, by law, people who do not use reflective elements(like reflective vest or reflective tape) are threatened with a fine of up to two thousand, when they go off the road outside the village.
The rule is not the lawmakers’ will, it responds to the annual tragic accident statistics. Eighteen pedestrians only died on the roads this year in October, which contributed significantly to the particularly high number of road accidents during the month. According to Traffic Lines Director Tomas Lerch, visibility contributed to most car crashes with pedestrians.