Tag: reflective safety vests

Drivers must wear reflective vests in casualties

While reflective vests for pedestrians, which cost about 50 to 200 crowns, it is only considered that vests for the driver are already decided. As of January 1, all vehicles must be fitted with a vest which the driver must wear whenever their car has, for example, a fault, a wheel or a road accident.

The amendment to the Road Act, which could begin to apply in the middle of the year, will bring further news on Czech roads. Especially tougher penalties for aggressive drivers.

Overtaking the man or entering the track around the gates that have been launched will be seven points behind, “mice on the roads” in five. These are maneuvers in which most people die on the roads. Much more has to be borne in mind by the motorists for safety belts sewn-in reflective tapes and car seats for child passengers. Here, penalties are tightened.

Conversely, no penalty points would have been made for banal offenses, such as daylight-off or ride-on lanes.

The new feature is also a much tougher fight against illegal car racing in common traffic, such as the Gumball or Diamond Race. Police officers did not have levers. This will change. In the future, it will be possible for drivers who, for example, to drive on the highway at a speed of the twenty-kilometer speed, can take up to two days in a car.

From the beginning of November, reflective safety vests should also be mandatory on all roads.

The tape does not help you

The best for your safety would be if the reflective elements were copying your front and back outline. But who would want to go out of the pub or evening out in a reflective vest…

“We place the reflective tape in the direction of the road, the right side of the body, on the ankle or on the wrist,” explains Martin Farad.

However, if only one tape is available, it is better to place it on your ankle. “The light of the car shine from the bottom and illuminate the tape on the ankle before the wrist,” notes the head of the BESIP. If you have a reflex tape attached to your wrist, be careful not to cover it with your sleeve.

If you feel as good as a reflective tape like a lighted mobile phone, remember that not only do you fail to comply with the statutory duty, but you risk the phone will run out and the driver will not see you.

Conversely, if you would like to underline the effect of reflection, you can shine with fluorescent colors in the shade or rain. It does not provide the reflection of the light, but it will prolong the distance the driver sees you.

Every extra meter decides

It would seem like a cumbersome recalculation of every inch. It is a necessary malignancy. Every additional meter available to the driver to brake or safely avoiding is calculated on the unlit road.

So, know that a pedestrian with visible reflective safety vests will record the driver at a distance of 200 meters. At 65 kilometers per hour, he has enough time to figure out the potential danger, decides what to do, maneuver, and comfortably completes.

In dark clothing, the distance you see on the side is shrunk to just 18 meters. At the same speed, the car is blinking in one second. “The driver has virtually no chance to react to the pedestrian and avoid him safely,” emphasizes Martin Farrar.

And we still talk about speed that only a few people get outside the village. At a speed of 90 kilometers per hour, a chauffeur needs a safe walking distance of at least 90 meters, and even in the white cloth that is the best reflex after that, you can only see it at a distance of 55 meters.

Forget the reflective elements, the driver cannot see them

Compared to last year, twice as many pedestrians died in traffic accidents this January. Tragic is also February. The last such an accident was the crash on the national road near Pesky Brood, where the married couple died. The accident happened at night, and no pedestrian had any reflective elements or reflective vests.

Reflective materials have been mandatory for two years when walking outside the village, but this year the effect of this rule is not very noticeable. While in 2015 and 2016, when reflective materials were not mandatory (mandatory from 20 February 2016), eleven pedestrians died in January, last year the number of casualties dropped to eight. This year, however, it brought a tragic figure: Fourteen pedestrians died in traffic accidents.

There were also considerably more crashes with pedestrian vehicles that did not end with death. Police statistics are 357, which is 65 (22 percent) more than last January.

The truth is that in January the total number of accidents and also death on the roads increased significantly when 40 people died compared to last year’s 30th. It was the most tragic January since 2014, but the number of pedestrians killed contributed significantly to the overall increase. If the total number of victims increased by ten, between the pedestrians the victim was six. In addition, the black series continues in February.

Worst January in six years

Total statistics of January accidents show worsening not only compared to 2017 but also many previous ones, no pedestrian had any reflective elements or reflective safety vests. The same number of people as this year (40) died in accidents in 2014, the higher the number of death last January in 2012 (46). However, we cannot forget that this year’s weather was considerably more benign than last year or before last year, when the snow had been snowing for quite a while.