"Accidents hurt – Safety doesn’t.'' – anon.
Take a look around any busy town centre or large event and you’ll be able to spot people wearing bright yellow or orange jackets - easy to see aren't they? High visibility (hi-vis) clothing and accessories are fast becoming a part of our culture and one way to help protect ourselves against increasing traffic.
Pop on a vest, some bands or even a few stickers and everyone from cyclists, runners, horse riders, motorbike fans and school kids can be more easily seen – whatever the conditions, whatever the time of day.
In many European countries including France and Spain it is now a legal requirement to carry a high visibility waistcoat for every occupant in your vehicle in case of breakdown.
How hi-vis works
During the day, the sun's ultraviolet rays react with the fluorescent colours to make them appear to ‘glow’, increasing daytime visibility. The effect is stronger in poor light conditions such as in fog or towards dusk.
At night, light from sources like car headlights bounce off the reflective areas to make it glow, increasing night-time visibility.
Some reflective materials are retro-reflective which means the light bounces back to its source. If a car shines it’s headlights on retro-reflective material, most of the light is reflected back to the driver, for example.
Why is yellow best?
The best reflective colours are yellow, green, pink, orange and red. But not all colours are good – blue, for example, is not so effective for fluoro clothing because of its wavelength.
On their own, fluorescent colours don't show up in the dark or 'glow in the dark' – so to be seen at night the best possible combination is something that is both fluorescent and reflective.
Keeping Kids Seen
Whether they're walking, cycling or just crossing the road after being dropped off in a car, it can be really hard to see darkly-clad kids especially on misty, rainy mornings and again when daylight is fading. Most school uniforms are dark in colour, and while some coats, bags or shoes may feature reflective trims that help with visibility after dark, they’re generally not enough for enhanced daytime and twilight visibility.
Combined with good road safety training, making children brighter and more visible when out and about we hope will lead to kids being able to participate more physically and actively. It’s a simple idea – happier, fitter and healthier children, will hopefully lead better and longer lives!
Fast Facts
• The leading cause of child injury death in Australia is pedestrian injury.(SaferRoads www.aaa.asn.au)
• In Australia one child pedestrian is killed each week, and 25 are injured each week. Pedestrian injuries are often severe and are a significant cause of child disability. (WA Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia)
• Child pedestrian injury death is most common 3-4 hours after leaving school and sunset. (FORS)
• More than 50% of pedestrian fatalities occur in darkness or at dusk. Fatalities increase April-July when the days are shorter. Wearing dark clothing increases your risk of becoming a pedestrian fatality. (RTA)
• In 70% of the cases, the other driver is at fault and in many cases they say that they didn’t see the motor rider. (Motorcycle Council of NSW)
• Simply by wearing fluorescent clothing, cyclists can markedly increase their visibility and reduce the likelihood of crashes by 77%. Low visibility of cyclists is a major contributor to crash related injury. (Dr Simon Thorley from the School of Population Health, University of Auckland, 2007)
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