Tag: high visibility vest

Do police need to wear high visibility reflective vests when on duty?

Everybody has heard the urban myth about the driver who escaped a speeding fine because the police officer that issued his ticket wasn’t wearing a high visibility vest for Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). So, with CarAdvice reader Trent e-mailing us with that exact question this week, we set off to investigate.

Q: Hi guys. I love the site! Keep up the great work. I’m from Victoria and a friend told me recently that police can’t issue you with traffic infringements if they are not wearing high visibility reflective vests for safety. Is this right?

A: Good question, Trent. It’s one that has been doing the rounds for some time — where the individual fought a speeding fine because the police officer wasn’t wearing a high visibility reflective vest.

To get a definitive answer, we touched base with the Victoria Police to see what the ruling is in your state.

Victoria Police senior media officer, Ben Radisich, told CarAdvice:

“Members must wear a high visibility vest when performing a role where the primary function is road policing duties or when on roads near moving vehicles. Members will not be required to wear a high visibility vest:

Wherein the assessment of the member, wearing the vest represents a serious risk to health and safety (such as responding to an armed offender or siege situation); or

If authorized by a supervisor on a specific occasion, for specific duties or planned operations.

If members assess that wearing the high visibility vest on roads represents a serious risk to health and safety they must be able to justify such a decision if required to do so.”

So there you have it, Trent. Generally speaking, police officers must wear high visibility reflective vests when performing duties outside of their vehicles.

But, that doesn’t mean it’s okay to break the law and use technicalities to get around infringement notices.

Road safety warning issued ahead of strong winds, snow and ice

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has issued a warning to road users ahead of difficult driving conditions over the next few days.

The advice comes on foot of three weather warnings issued by Met Éireann earlier today, Wednesday, March 11.

The warnings will effect 11 counties altogether: a Status Orange wind warning for Co. Donegal; a Status Yellow snow/ice warning for Co. Donegal; and a Status Yellow wind warning for counties Cavan, Monaghan, Dublin, Louth, Meath, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, and Clare.

The latter of these warnings will also apply to Co. Donegal when the Status Orange warning is not in effect.

Motorists traveling in these counties at the affected times are being advised to check the local traffic and weather conditions in the area before setting out on a journey.

For motorists driving in wet or windy conditions, the RSA gives the following advice:

Control of a vehicle may be affected by crosswinds, particularly high-sided vehicles and motorcycles;

Beware of objects blown onto the road, and expect road conditions to change quickly;

Watch out for fallen or falling debris, and vehicles veering across the road;

Drivers should allow extra space between themselves and vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and motorcyclists, as they may be blown off-course;

Drivers need to slow-down in wet weather conditions, especially on high-speed roads such as dual carriageways and motorways, where there is an increased danger of aquaplaning;

Choose another route if the road ahead is flooded – do not drive through a flood. Floods could be deeper than they appear, and trees and branches in the water may not be visible;

Drivers should always follow recommended routes and obey signs closing roads to traffic;

After going through water, drive slowly with your foot on the brake pedal for a short distance, which helps to dry the brakes;

Drive with dipped headlights at all times.

The RSA has also outlined advice for cyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians.

This includes: wearing bright clothing with reflective armbands or a belt, as visibility for drivers will be reduced; taking special care when crossing the road or cycling in high winds; walking on footpaths where possible; and keeping an eye out for falling debris, especially in urban areas.

In terms of dealing with snow and ice, drivers are advised to:

Clear windows and mirrors with a screen scraper and de-icer – not hot water as this can crack the glass;

Remove snow from your vehicle, as it can slide onto the windows during braking and restrict your view;

Slow down; use all controls delicately, and leave extra distance between yourself and the vehicle in front. Avoid oversteering, harsh braking and harsh acceleration. Use the highest gear possible. Select a low gear when traveling downhill;

Do not use the tail lights of the car in front as a guide. In heavy snow, use your fog lights, turn down the radio and let down the window slightly, so traffic can be heard;

Use dipped headlights at all times, and fog lights in heavy snow;

Watch out for vulnerable road users and allow extra space to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

Pedestrians are advised to: wear bright clothing, or ideally a high-visibility jacket or reflective armbands and belt; wear appropriate footwear; and not underestimate the danger of ice, using extreme caution when walking in icy areas.

Finally, the advice to motorcyclists for taking to the road in snowy and icy conditions is to not compromise their safety by going on a journey when they could cancel it or use alternative transport.

Motorcyclists should also: wear a high-visibility vest; ensure lights are working properly, and avoid wearing a dark visor in bad light conditions.

Also, other road users may not expect motorcyclists, which could compromise safety.

Adding arrow to cyclists’ vests reduced number of crashes

Cyclists who are concerned about their safety should don a specially designed high-visibility vest with an arrow to help stay safe on the road, according to new research from UBC Okanagan.

Gordon Lovegrove, an associate professor in the engineering department, and collaborator Takuro Shoji say they were interested to see if communication was more important than visual aids when it comes to bike safety. They added an arrow to a reflective vest with reflective tape to convey a message to Drivers: move over.

Their study, published in the journal Sustainability, claims to be the first paper in the world to study the role communication aids can play to help vulnerable road users (VRUs).

Researchers gave cyclists high-visibility vests with different designs, as well as no vests, and discovered that a vest with an arrow design pointing left (which made of reflective heat transfer vinyl) was the most effective.

The study discovered that the arrow vest design reduced the number of traffic accidents between cyclists and drivers.

“Vehicles passing VRU test subjects wearing the arrow vest design showed more respect, and participants’ perceptions generally agreed,” the study reads.

Part of their research, Lovegrove says, was fuelled by an interest in examining whether the advice of “Be safe, be seen” actually helped cyclists.

He notes that bikers are recommended to have front and rear lights, reflectors and brightly-colored clothing, but it doesn’t just help.

“While overall detectability on the road is critical, evidence suggests that current conspicuity aids cannot provide safety in their current form,” And a more optimal design is needed.”

The researchers call the results “promising,” but add that they used a relatively small sample size, and additional work is required to further test their findings.

Every year 5 children up to 14 years are injured on foot

In anticipation of the start of the school year, the Police of the City of Lugano has therefore decided to promote the “BIMBI SICURI” operation, to guarantee the safety of the students on the roads along the home-school route. In this way the city police adhere to the national campaign for a safe home-school journey, called “Attention, children are unpredictable”, prepared by the Office accident prevention, with the participation of the accident prevention fund and the Swiss police.

In Lugano, according to the data provided by the cantonal police concerning road traffic accidents involving children, every year, 5 children up to 14 years are injured on foot (average values ​​over the last years). At the national level, 40% on the home-school journey. Three children get away with minor injuries, but two report serious injuries. In the same period, nobody has fortunately lost his life.

In the age group between 5 and 9 years, children suffer accidents especially while crossing the road: half of them are injured near a pedestrian crossing and in 60% of the cases they are the ones who cause the accident.

The measures envisaged by the “BIMBI SICURI” operation

With the “BIMBI SICURI” operation, various concrete information and prevention measures have been planned, not least thanks to the collaboration with the municipal school.

Through a circular, the information will be provided with police councils for parents of city students.

At the same time, on the roads near the school premises, radar checks are provided both during the week before the start of the school and during the first week of the new school year. This measure is very important, also because a recent survey carried out by the TCS shows that parents’ fear of their children’s safety is mainly generated by the speed of vehicles near schools, as well as by the high number of vehicles in traffic.

During the first day of school, first-grade students will be given a high visibility vest bib to make them visible on the home-school route.

Add to this the proximity action of the neighborhood agents near the school centers, to watch over the safety of the children and to observe the behaviors on the road in particular about precedence to pedestrians, transport of children on vehicles and parking. of the same, as well as the crossing of the road that presents the greatest risks and that, inevitably, will be the object of much attention. Finally, it should be noted that during the first week, neighborhood agents, in principle, will proceed to educate and inform those who do not take the right behavior on the road. While starting from the second week, noteworthy infringements will be sanctioned.

The police councils

As already done in the past, the city police are keen to remember in this particular time of the year that road safety inevitably depends on the user’s behavior on the road. And in this regard, he provides some useful advice.

To all vehicle drivers:

Warning! Children are unpredictable!

Slows.

Be ready to brake.

Stop completely in front of the pedestrian crossing.

Double attention in the vicinity of schools.

To parents:

Set a good example. Tell your child the safest way to go to school by walking safely with him.

Choose the safest route, not the shortest! He teaches and practices the safe use of over / underpasses, sidewalks, and walkways, the latter to be crossed only with the green light!

Start your child for school early enough, dressing him with easily visible clothing with reflective fabric and also composed of reflective materials.

Do your best not to take your child to school by car. Getting to the school on foot is an important experience for her/him.

To the children:

Don’t run and don’t play on the road.

Do not distract.

Respect others.

Always pay attention to traffic.

For drivers who accompany children:

Do not rush.

Always fasten the child with the belt.

Use the seat or the booster seat. The seat/booster seat is mandatory for children up to 12 years of age or less than 150 cm tall. Further information on the Swiss Touring club website (see references).

Do not endanger children or park, or stop where it is forbidden, or where the view is poor.

Stop in the areas specifically designated for parking.

Get the child down on the side of the sidewalk.

Before leaving, check that there are no children in front of or behind your vehicle.

Adding arrow to cyclists’ vests reduced number of crashes

Cyclists who are concerned about their safety should don a specially designed high-visibility vest with an arrow to help stay safe on the road, according to new research from UBC Okanagan.

Gordon Lovegrove, an associate professor in the engineering department, and collaborator Takuro Shoji say they were interested to see if communication was more important than visual aids when it comes to bike safety. They added an arrow to a reflective vest to convey a message to Drivers: move over.

Their study, published in the journal Sustainability, claims to be the first paper in the world to study the role communication aids can play to help vulnerable road users.

Researchers gave cyclists high-visibility vests with different designs, as well as no vests, and discovered that a vest with an arrow design pointing left was the most effective.

The study discovered that the arrow vest with reflective tape design reduced the number of traffic accidents between cyclists and drivers.

“Vehicles passing VRU test subjects wearing the arrow vest design showed more respect, and participants’ perceptions generally agreed,” the study reads.

Part of their research, Lovegrove says, was fuelled by an interest in examining whether the advice of “Be safe, be seen” actually helped cyclists.

He notes that bikers are recommended to have front and rear lights, reflectors and brightly-colored reflective clothing, but it doesn’t just help.

“While overall detectability on the road is critical, evidence suggests that current conspicuity aids cannot provide safety in their current form,” And a more optimal design is needed.”

The researchers call the results “promising,” but add that they used a relatively small sample size, and additional work is required to further test their findings.

How to avoid abuses if you are a driver or a pedestrian

Each year there are about 11,000 abuses in Spain and about 400 people die because of this, according to data from RACE and Goodyear. More than 90% of them occur in the city, which means an average of 27 cases of abuse per day in urban areas.

 

Below we select some of the tips offered by the DGT, RACE, Foundation MAPFRE, aimed at drivers and pedestrians to avoid abuses:

 

IF YOU ARE A DRIVER

 

In the city, moderate speed, since the higher it is, the greater the probability of death if a pedestrian is run over. To visualize it better the DGT establishes these comparisons: an outrage at 50 km / h is equivalent to falling from a third floor, at 120 km / h it is like falling from a 14º and at 180 km / h it is equivalent to falling from a plant 36.

 

Extreme caution in critical places such as pedestrian crossings, school zones, garage exits and leisure places (parks, cinemas…).

 

If you are going to back down, do it slowly and make sure there are no pedestrians passing behind your vehicle.

 

Avoid distractions at the wheel (mobile, GPS navigator…) and be especially careful with pedestrians who walk talking on the phone or headphones, as they are less attentive to traffic.

 

Do not park the car on the sidewalks, as it will force the pedestrian to invade the road and suffer a greater risk of being run over.

 

Be careful if you find a damaged car on the shoulder of a road, since it is possible that the driver is near repairing your vehicle.

 

If you are on the road and your vehicle suffers a breakdown, place it on the shoulder and off the roadway. If this is not possible, turn on the emergency signal, position signs, wear the reflective vest and put the triangles emergency. If you have to wait for the assistance service, stay inside the car or in a safe area outside the vehicle.

 

IF YOU ARE PEDESTRIAN

 

When you cross the street, always use the pedestrian crossings and follow the traffic light.

 

Before crossing, look to the left and right and make sure that the vehicles are going to break before crossing.

 

Do not get out of the cars or obstacles that hinder visibility.

 

Do not cross behind a vehicle while it is parked.

 

Pay special attention when you go to an entrance or exit garage.

 

Avoid distractions when you cross how to use the phone or wear headphones.

 

If you have reduced mobility or you have difficulty walking, cross calmly.

 

If you just park your car, always try to go down the sidewalk.

 

If you walk on a road without a sidewalk, always go along the shoulder and stay to the left of the road, facing traffic.

 

Avoid sections that are not well lit. If it is dark or there is little visibility, wear a high visibility vest with reflective materials.

 

At the beginning of the school year

On Tuesday, September 11th, the new school year begins. The students will head back to the schoolhouses in droves. But after only a few weeks, the little ones will have to master the way to school on their own. In order to exclude the risk of accidents on the way to school as completely as possible, the police inspection of Walsenburg appeals to the rationality of road users.

 

“Send your child on the way in time!” is a police advice. Because the freshmen have to be able to manage their way to school in peace, without hectic rush and panic. The possibility that the first graders are distracted on their way to school should be taken into account.

 

The law enforcement officers know from Experienced: “Haste in traffic can be deadly!” And they advise all schoolchildren, not just the new schoolchildren, to dress reflective vests so that they are well seen even in bad weather by other road users. In doing so, parents should make sure that hoods do not restrict the child’s field of vision and do not lead to tunnel vision.

 

At the beginning of school, the first years of the traffic guard receive a reflective garment in a signal color, a high visibility vest, a harness, a cap or similar. The police ask the parents: “Insist that your child also puts on the reflective clothing on the way to school. The basic rules for the safe way to school are: “See and be seen!”

 

In principle, it is also to be welcomed from the point of view of the police if the children drive to school by bicycle and are not driven by their parents every day by car. The way to school by bike is from the point of view of the police but especially dangerous because the children would have to focus on driving. Therefore, parents should let their child go to school alone with the bike, if it has successfully passed the bicycle test in the fourth grade, advise the law enforcement officers. In addition, parents should make sure that the bike is safe and secure. Even trifles, such as a missing reflector, could already be fatal to children on the road if they are overlooked in the dark.

The high-visibility vest is a hazard prediction tool

The French start-up CAD.42 is developing a tool for predicting danger and productivity management for construction sites. The solution, which collects position data from equipment and personnel, communicates in real time connected with PPE that warns of the imminence of a risky situation. And the high-visibility vest is a hazard prediction tool.

One in ten workers is injured every year in France. Based on this observation, the founders of the CAD.42 start-up have created a predictive hazard calculation system dedicated to construction sites, quarries and mines as well as the world of industry and energy. Jean-Philippe Panged, the co-founder and president of the entity created at the end of 2016, say that it amounts to “equipping the companions and the tools of very precise position sensors”. The data that are collected by these sensors are sent to the cloud and processed in real time to allow the detection of risk situations instantly.

A video shows the example of a worker working under a crane: “The smart safety vest detects the entry of the companion into the cone of danger, it triggers a warning light and sound”. In fact, the vest starts to sound and LEDs integrated into the reflective tapes produce flashes in order to attract the attention of the crane operator and the wearer of the connected EPI. The situation can also be viewed live on the digital model of the site manager. By positioning each element equipped with a beacon to within 30cm, it is possible to avoid machine-pedestrian collisions, to secure isolated workers and to dynamically mark risk zones in the case of simultaneous interventions.

Cyclist mortality worries

In recent years, the practice of cycling has increased in large cities, driven by the development of self-service bicycle systems and the mayors’ desire to reduce car traffic in the city center. “In Ile-de-France, we are from 300,000 daily bicycle trips in 2001 to 700,000 in 2010, “recalls Dominique Lebrun, inter-ministerial coordinator for the use of bicycles. A progression that has been paired with the risks incurred by bicycle users. “The accidents of cyclists are related to several causes: the no respect of the signaling (fires, stop …) by some of them, the turn-left badly negotiated by others, the not taken into account of the cyclists by motorized users (excessive speed, safety distance not respected, fishtail …), the lack of lighting and visibility of bicycle users(not wear a reflective vest ), especially when they are in blind spots “, describes Emmanuel Reynard, director of education and training of the Association Prevention router.

“The main problem is that users have not learned to live together well. All cyclists must respect the rules of the road and other road users must be aware that bicycle drivers are vulnerable. Motorists need to know, for example, that a minimum distance of one meter is needed in the city to double a bike, “adds Chantal Perdition, president of the League against road violence.

Prevention and control

To reduce the number of injured cyclists, both agree on the need to develop information and prevention campaigns for them. The Road Safety Association has also planned one in 2013, which will focus on the visibility of cyclists. For Emmanuel Reynard, we must emphasize the importance of specific equipment for cyclists: “We recommend that they wear a high-visibility vest even during the day, as well as a helmet. In addition, they must check that their bike is equipped with retro-reflective tape. ”

Chantal Perdition also insists on the need to increase the control of cyclists by law enforcement agencies, when they do not respect the rules of the road. For example, Strasbourg has recently decided to increase the number of cyclists and to more systematically verbalize their traffic offenses, by imposing less expensive fines on them. Finally, Dominique Lebrun stresses the importance of increasing the number of protected cycle paths. Suggestions among others, which will be reviewed by the National Road Safety Council (CNSR) this year, before action is taken to improve the safety of cyclists.

We made the choice to ensure our own safety

At the national level, this tragedy had concurred with another involving also five firefighters in Paris, victims of flash over (blazing generalized flash). Interior Minister Nicolas Sarcoxie then launched a municipal security inspection. “It has led to the development of a health and safety commission for all Sid at the national level, and the birth of an accident prevention investigation bureau” with a predominance of experience feedback.

And if the Dome was content with these measures, she did not content herself with it. “Work has been conducted with the ASF on the procedures for interventions on motorways”, with the birth of the one that becomes part of the daily firefighters Dome: the safety vehicle. Yellow in color, similar to that of the Canadair’s, it is positioned upstream of the interventions. “It is visible day and night, sunny weather as fog. It is equipped with LED reflective vests, ramps, a variable message sign. We took the choice to ensure our own security while awaiting the arrival of the protection services. ”

The utility of the security vehicle quickly asserted itself on the national and departmental roads. “We have 20 that benefit from reinforcement, especially in rural areas, of multipurpose light-duty vehicles with a markup function. ”

The outfits have also evolved. “From now on, every firefighter has his own high visibility vest, yellow or orange. It is compulsory for each intervention. “Consideration of new equipment was accompanied by a rise in power of our health and safety department, with action recognized at the national level – territorial price of the Gazette does communes in 2007 – what is the plan? Road risks.

“It’s a global approach intended to limit accidents, both in intervention and training, or during personal time. For volunteer firefighters as professionals. All the employees of the structure are concerned. “explains the service manager Alain Judge. “Let us hurry with caution or wear a safety clothing” is now the watchword of a whole profession. Or how a tragedy saved lives.