“1% reflective vest” among pedestrians walking by the side of the road at night. This is the result of a road safety awareness operation on Friday evening in Les Abymes. Departmental workers distributed reflective vests to pedestrians on Perrin road.
“20% in black clothes. 50% in the variegated outfit. 29% in bright clothing and 1% reflective vest”. This is the report drawn up by the departmental teams as part of the Security Meetings, Friday evening, in Abymes, during a free distribution of fluorescent vests on the road to Perrin. The message delivered: “see and be seen! To avoid any accident.”
Orange reflective vests were thus distributed to pedestrians. Sunday walkers or informed runners the goal is to protect themselves and make themselves as visible as possible, explains Didier Pitchy, departmental road safety worker for Guadeloupe: “above all, above all, it is not to wear dark costumes!”
“A vehicle, dressed in black, it is 30 meters of visibility that it has on you, 50 meters if you have a T-shirt or white pants, and 150 meters if you have the fluorescent vest”.
“It costs you nothing”, insists this former gendarme who deplores that some put their “elegance” before their safety.
Catherine likes to walk in the early morning, “around 5 am”, on deep-sea roads “to stay in shape” and recognizes that she ended up putting on a fluorescent vest because “the cars are sometimes not careful, you have to. stand on the low side to let them pass”.
“We have to go in the wrong direction; when the cars go up, I get off,” she advises for greater safety.
Didier Pitchy reminds pedestrians to circulate in suitable areas, motorists to “turn on their headlights” as soon as daylight decreases, and cyclists to “signal themselves” especially when they are traveling at night.
Since the start of the year, 6 pedestrians and 4 cyclists have been killed on our roads. The so-called vulnerable users (on foot or two wheels) represent 62% of deaths on Guadeloupe roads.