The “lobby of the vest” won. And from April the famous warning vest will obligatory throughout Italy. The law in fact is not required under the jacket on all cars (as happens instead for the triangle), but stipulates that any emergency operation around the car should be carried out with the famous jacket.
Thus any contravention would take effect only if you are caught “in flagrante delicate”. We must say that any measure to reduce the risk of accidents is welcome, even if it favors some powerful industrial lobby.
The point is that the case of fluorescent jackets is a striking example of disregard for their security that you would like to increase.
The decree in fact creates a huge legal vacuum on the insurance front: if a motorist is hit near his car without wearing a reflective vest , the insurance will not pay. This is the only operation certainty “jackets”.
There is however certain statistics on how many motorists are invested while changing a tire, on how many accidents could be avoided with this rule, on indirect benefits linked to an increased visibility of pedestrians around cars parked.
We only know that from April onwards insurance will have a new excuse not to pay. And the turnover of the companies that manufacture these jackets will increase.
But it is not – unfortunately – all: the next step will be to make it compulsory to apply strips reflectors on all trucks. An optional thing throughout Europe, but we will be compulsory by law. It will thus sell kilometers reflective adhesive strips to cover all trucks circulating in Italy.
But back to the jacket which, by the way, should cost about 10 Euros. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has in fact issued a decree with directions to the personal protective equipment for drivers of passenger cars.
The vests and suspenders must comply with the essential health and safety described in the legislative decree of 4 December 1992, n. 475. And manufacturers will be able to present, on request, in addition to the EC declaration of conformity even with the certificate of conformity. That has to be evaluated by testing for CE certification, by which an approved inspection body certifies that individual protective equipment is manufactured in accordance with relevant national standards, transposing the harmonized standards. For high visibility garments harmonized standard reference is UNI EN 471.