Month: October 2018

Traffic safety week started

Seeing and being seen is one of the most important requirements for safe driving. The traffic safety week from 15 to 21 October is under the motto “Visibility is safety”.

 

Especially in the dark season, it is essential for all road users alike to ensure good visibility in order to avoid accidents. In the past five years, a total of 346 pedestrians and 525 cyclists on the streets of Vorarlberg have been killed in the dark and poor visibility in traffic, including 87 children under the age of 15.

 

This was taken as an opportunity to put visibility at the center of this year. The focus is on targeted information on the affected road users.

 

Awareness raising

In addition to the distribution of folders and reflectors to pedestrians, the KFV will conduct reconnaissance and radar checks in all districts with police and INTEGRA. If necessary, small repairs to the wheel lighting are made on site. Motorists are informed about the consequences of poorly adjusted headlights. “Such awareness-raising priority actions are an ideal complement to existing measures,” provincial governor Karlheinz is convinced.

 

For example, the state has been promoting awareness of the topic of visibility in the Vorarlberg schools for many years with the support of traffic education partners. “In addition, Vorarlberg is the only federal state in Austria where all school beginners and kindergartens aged 3 to 5 have received a reflective safety vest at the start of school,” adds Raiser.

 

Visibility is safety

Well-visible, light-colored clothing, and reflective materials are useful in the foggy, dark time on the road. “Dark-clad people are visible at night only from 25 to 30 meters away for a motor vehicle handlebars. With reflective clothing, however, a pedestrian can be seen from a distance of 130 to 160 meters. This makes it easier for drivers to react in good time. “explains Martin of the Road Safety Board. In everyday life, however, only a few people wear reflective accessories and clothing, they are considered especially by younger road users as unfashionable and impractical.

 

Courage for visibility

The Provincial School Board for Vorarlberg and the KFV has therefore called on the Vorarlberg high school students in a joint action to design reflective clothing and accessories according to their own taste. The winning projects, which were chosen by a jury, are then turned into reality by the designer Daniela.

 

“We have received numerous creative and innovative submissions and hope that the implementation of the winning designs will lead to a sustainable increase in the wearing rate of reflective clothing with the reflective fabric and accessories and thus more road safety,” says compulsory school inspector Ivo Walser, MA pleased.

 

That’s how security comes to light

Even car drivers must be aware that poorly adjusted or defective headlights pose a significant security risk. Headlights that are set too low to illuminate too little of the road, which remains a big “black hole”.

 

If the headlights are set too high, oncoming traffic and pedestrians are dazzled and in the case of fog, this leads to dangerous self-glare. The driving speed may only be selected so that it can be stopped at any time in the existing visual range. The adjustment of the vehicle lighting must be done regularly: Is the light correct – the view is correct.

 

Illumination of protection routes

On the part of the Province of Vorarlberg as the street owner of the approximately 800km provincial roads, intensive investment is also being made in street lighting – around 15,000 light along the provincial roads alone – and in particular by protective paths (crosswalks).

 

In the course of the modernization of the street lighting, great emphasis is placed on known hazardous areas such. Protective paths and cyclists crossing different light colors use. Due to the different light color, these luminous areas set themselves apart from the general street lighting and thus increase the attention of the road users in these areas.

It’s worth remembering about reflections!

The autumn and winter season is the time when darkness often greets and says goodbye to children going to school and returning from it. That is why their safety is important. In schools, the subject of reflective vests is coming back. They have already started.

 

The “Reflective School” reached the students of the Primary School. Kids dressed in special vests with reflective materials and other reflective elements promoted road safety among the local community.

 

It is at the rural, low-light, often without pavement roads that such an initiative is needed. That is why students provided with banners encouraging them to move safely on the road under the supervision of a police patrol marched through the streets of the town to draw the attention of residents to the need for such behavior, and thus help to reduce the risks in road traffic – explain the originators of the action.

 

The owners of local shops who received reflective balloons from the students also helped in promoting this idea. It’s for customers.

 

In addition, students of the eighth grade, under the care of teachers, encouraged older people to wear reflective clothing.

 

Before the evening service, they handed out reflective bands to adults and especially for older people. The action was met with great gratitude among seniors. Remember to wear reflective vests, especially now when autumn, shorter days are coming!

 

Pay attention to standards when wearing reflective clothing

In the dark, reflective vests, jackets and trousers are important for cyclists and pedestrians. This makes them more visible to others. Anyone who is considering a new acquisition should pay attention to standards. Here are the most important numbers.

 

Reflective materials on clothing or bags make pedestrians and cyclists more visible in the dark. That’s because jackets or bags that are equipped with this technology throw the headlights of cars back directly.

 

The German Traffic Safety Council (DVR) advises paying attention to appropriate standards when buying reflective clothing. For safety accessories and clothing with the retro-reflective material, the number DIN EN 13356 and on schoolbags with illuminated surfaces should be the number DIN 58124. Alternatively, pedestrians and cyclists could wear safety vests in accordance with the EN ISO 20471 standard.

 

Safety is yellow

Yellow safety vests are given to the students in the new school year on the move, because now, a few weeks after enrollment, the dark season begins. Now it is very important to make the young road users particularly visible. Because of road traffic on the simple rule applies: Visibility is safety.

 

Mayor Hubert, representing the municipality and supporter of the “First Grade Safety Campaign”, is also assisting the ABC marksman along with the class teacher and headmistress Kerstin. He gave each child a neon yellow safety vest. As a result, the children immediately started to love the cool safety vests with the reflective tape.

 

Not only does the vest looks great, but it also provides extra protection for the schoolchild. A child who regularly wears a safety vest over his jacket on the way to school, to friends and to sport, will be visible from other road users already from 140 meters.

 

The self-evident wearing the safety vest with reflective materials could avoid accidents, the headmistress said.

57% of cyclists are poorly lit when driving at night

The rate of bicycle lighting faults is decreasing, but equipment in reflective clothing or accessories is not progressing.

 

It’s better than five years ago, but it’s still not enough. Nearly six out of ten cyclists (57%) ride poorly lit at night in the city, according to a survey of the Prevention Road Association published Tuesday, October 9. Volunteers observed nearly 3,300 bicycles in 10 cities in France, as the critical winter season approaches – between November and January, the month with the shortest days, 40% of accidents involving cyclists take place nightly.

 

“Between 2013 and 2018, the rate of defects in the lighting of the bicycles decreases.” If rented bicycles remain exemplary on this point (7% in 2018 against 9% in 2013), the number of deficient personal bikes is still of 57% in 2018, compared to 76% in 2013. Among them, more than a third (37%) are totally devoid of lighting (against 58% in 2013) “. The association notes in a statement.

 

More and more cyclists killed

On the other hand, the equipment in reflective clothing with reflective materials or accessories (vests, armbands…) does not progress: it was 17% in 2018, against 14% five years ago. “There is still much to do but we are on a good trend. The bike is better equipped. For the cyclist, it’s something else,” regrets the General Delegate of Road Safety, Anne Lava. And remember that a reflective vest can be seen five times further by motorists (150 meters with, against 30 meters without).

 

The number of cyclists killed has risen in recent years. In 2017, 173 of them died (+ 6.8% compared to 2015, an additional 11 killed). Since 2010, the number of cyclists killed on the road has been increasing, with an average annual evolution of + 2.4%, while the number of other users of vehicles killed has fallen by an annual average of -2.6% per year and the number of pedestrians killed is stable.

The Channel calls for the yellow vest

As long as it was within its competence, the Department of the Channel was distributing yellow reflective vests to students using school transport. The Normandy Region did not follow…

 

The departmental councilor of La Manche delegate for road safety, Dominique Morel, is angry with the regional council of Normandy, which took over the organization of school transport.

 

In a message communicated Friday, September 30, she does not go in four ways:

 

“I note, for the start of the 2018-2019 school year, that student safety is not a priority! The regional council has decided to no longer make the yellow vest with reflective materials mandatory in school buses. How can we make such a decision, when they have not yet distributed a single yellow vest since September 1, 2017! ”

 

“It worked well”

The Manchester election exposes the context that exasperates him all the more:

 

When we take a skill, we do not wait. It should have been prepared upstream. In addition, staff who intervenes on this competence for the Region cannot ignore what we were doing in the Channel, they were already in charge of transport for the Department, including awareness. ”

 

In January 2014, the departmental council of La Manche had made it mandatory to wear the yellow vest for all schoolchildren and users of a school bus or a regular line of the department.

 

Until the fall of 2017, he funded and handed yellow vests to all students returning to sixth grade.

 

The Region argues on the time to harmonize practices between the five departments, deplores the elected. But is there not rather a will not continue this action deployed by the Department of the Channel since the others did not? I do not see where the complexity of the thing is; it worked well. ”

 

We see the child at 150 m, against 30 m if he does not have a vest.

The elected representative wishes to recall:

 

A person wearing a yellow vest with the reflective tape is seen 150 meters against 30, for those who do not wear it! ”

 

For this school year, the departmental council of La Manche suddenly made the choice to take again this load and for a budget of € 12,500, will distribute about 6,000 vests after the holidays of All Saints to middle school students in 6th in the 73 establishments of the Channel.

 

Contacted on the subject, the Regional Council of Normandy did not respond to our call.

Wearing reflections can save a life

On October 2, the “Be Visible” social campaign initiated by the Ministry of Transport and Communication took off in Lithuania.

 

Rojas Marsalis, the head of the department, initiated a nationwide campaign near the Lithuanian Post Office building in the town of Vievis, where as part of the month-long campaign, local residents will be distributed to 20,000 reflections – an indispensable attribute of pedestrians of road users and cyclists. Thanks to reflective materials on an unlit road, the driver will notice the pedestrian even from a distance of up to 200 meters.

 

The goal of the “Be Visible” social campaign is to encourage residents to take care of their safety on the road when it is dark. On 5-31 October, intensified inspections will take place on national roads, during which road police officers will check if pedestrians and cyclists are wearing reflections.

 

“In the period when the dark part of the day is a major part of our lives, the number of road accidents among pedestrians increases significantly. Almost always the victim has no reflection. The Lithuanian Road Administration, in order to persuade the public to pay attention to the increased risk, calls for children and adults not to forget about reflections. It is not recommended to have flares in the dark of the day, but it is necessary. It is very important that both the youngest and their parents remind them of this duty. “said Vitiates Grays, head of the Lithuanian traffic police service.

 

The officer is reminded that all road users who do not comply with traffic regulations and do not have flares in the dark are punished with fines ranging from 20 to 40 Euros. In this year 81 people were punished.

 

“Pedestrian safety is a serious problem. In 2017, 192 people died on the roads of Lithuania. 68 of them are pedestrians, who usually have no reflections “- said Vitiates Grays.

 

Especially in autumn and winter, pedestrians are obliged to take care of their own visibility.

 

Police remind that every pedestrian who moves along the road after dusk should have a reflective element placed in a visible way for drivers. People who do not comply with the regulations endanger their lives. Pedestrian dressed in a dark outfit is seen by the driver of the vehicle at a distance of about 20 meters. Reflective elements increase the visibility to a distance of 150 meters, and the vest up to 200 m. The lower the reflector is placed, the better the car’s headlamps will illuminate it and the driver can see the pedestrian earlier. The optimum height at which the user should wear a reflector is the height of the headlamps falling on it.

Make sure that the reflective accessories that you wear are not covered, such as a scarf, bag or backpack.

 

Going on the left side of the road (in the opposite direction to the movement of vehicles), it is best to wear reflections on the right hand or leg (from the direction of vehicle movement). When we move in the column, we should go to the right side and wear a reflection on the left hand or leg (from the direction of vehicle movement).

 

When buying reflective vests, make sure that the product meets the quality standards. The most important thing is that it should be marked with the CE symbol and comply with the European Union’s security standards. Depending on the quality of the product, the reflection can perfectly fulfill its role for several years. However, every autumn you should consider whether it still provides maximum protection. You can do this by illuminating the flashlight at eye level with old and new reflections from a distance of 4 meters. If the old reflective tape reflects less light than the new one, it’s time to change it.

They organized a Reflective Safety Day

Education in the field of safety of unprotected road users is a very important element in raising children and adolescents as well as adults. Therefore, the Primary School located on the busy provincial road for many years, together with the local government and many institutions, undertakes effective activities in this area, the effect of which is even the creation and functioning of one of the most modern communication towns in Poland.

 

It is here that the finals of the Nationwide Safety Tournament in Road Traffic take place. Next to the town there is a bike path under EUROVELO4.

 

For several years now, students of the school have undertaken numerous activities among the local community for safety, including the use of reflective materials by both pedestrians and cyclists.

 

Every year, the school takes part in the competition titled “Reflective School” trying to undertake innovative activities encouraging to increase the safety of unprotected road users.

 

One of the elements of organized “Reflective Safety Day” was the Picnic in the Communications Town called “Wear reflective clothing, shine with example” and “Reflective March” through the streets with banners that encourage residents to use reflective vests.