Month: June 2019

In the State Duma will be offered to make mandatory reflective elements of clothing

State Duma Deputy Vyacheslav Lysakov will propose that the government of the Russian Federation oblige enterprises to equip children’s, school and sports clothing with reflective fabrics or other reflective materials, the Parliamentary Newspaper reports.

 

On March 18, a decree comes into force, obliging drivers to wear a reflective jacket or reflective vest of drivers in case of a forced stop of the vehicle outside settlements when leaving the car. Drivers must have protective vests in many European countries.

 

“It is necessary to develop mandatory, rather than recommendatory standards for each group of goods: school clothes, children’s, sports and tourism, profile enterprises should strictly follow these national standards,” the author of the initiative explained to the newspaper.

 

Lysakov noted that the requirements will apply to both domestic and foreign suppliers.

 

According to preliminary estimates, additional elements can cause a rise in the price of goods by 10-15%. “But the question concerns the safety of Russians, this is the responsibility of the state. The state is obliged to protect the lives and health of citizens not only by increasing fines for violating traffic rules or introducing new punitive measures against offenders but also by regulating the activities of industrialists in the interests of people’s safety”.

 

According to statistics, in the first six months of 2017, over 7.5 thousand pedestrian raids recorded on Russian roads at night. This is 10.2% less compared to the same period of 2016. As a result, more than 1.3 thousand people died, more than 6.5 thousand people suffered.

Fatal accident in Barnaul: who is to blame – the driver or a pedestrian?

On the night of January 8 in Barnaul, at the intersection of North-West and Smirnov, a car hit a pedestrian to death. Eyewitnesses of the accident in the comments of the public “Incident Barnaul” say that the car rushed at high speed and did not even have time to slow down. The pedestrian died at the scene.

After the incident in public, a dispute broke out – who is to blame: the driver or a pedestrian?

“Sorry for the driver. At night, pedestrians without reflective vests are very difficult to see and not leave the car in one second. This is forgotten.”

“Generally not sorry for the driver! It is necessary to slow down in front of a pedestrian!”

“How much could he fly? Our roads have not been cleaned since October, my navigator has an average speed of 20 km per hour!”

“Normal roads! Not perfect, but the car slows down normally if you don’t fly 80! Before pedestrians need to slow down for your own good!”

Barnaul noted that the road section, where the fatal accident occurred, is notoriety – accidents often happen here.

“They constantly fly there, despite the cameras!”

In the North-West from Yurin to the 80th Guards, few drivers leave to go on pedestrians. Sometimes 10-15 cars will pass before someone stops. Wines are always only on the driver. He manages a means of increased danger. You do not know how to slow down before a pedestrian crossing, sell your car and go public!

A year ago there was the same tragic situation, there was a dialogue with a woman. I told her that it was a road, not a sidewalk, to which she replied to me – I was tired, I was leaving work and I do not care. Hence the conclusion – the salvation of the drowning, the handiwork of the drowning. Do not judge strictly, but we have winter and it is easier for a person to miss the car than to stop the car. In no case, I do not deny the guilt of the driver, but first of all, you need to take care of yourself!

One of the commentators, in order to avoid such cases, suggested the use of reflective materials:

“Reflective tapes of clothing in the dark can save your life. They cost a penny, but life has no price,” writes Mikhail Medynin.

Study reveals low use of helmet, lights and reflective in cyclists

Although 84% of cyclists wear a helmet and it is a high number, only 20% use reflective vest and lights.

 

The Law of Road Coexistence came to fix as mandatory the use of helmets. In addition to this fundamental element for security are added the reflective vest and lights.

 

However, despite the fact that its use is mandatory, there are still those who do not learn. A study conducted by the NGO No Chat in conjunction with the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Chile revealed the preferences of cyclists.

 

84% of cyclists wear helmets when moving through the streets. At the same time that 21% of them use reflective vests and 22% have some type of light installed on their bicycles.

 

The study considered the measurement of 2040 cyclists, where 1002 of them were observed in the morning and 1038 in the afternoon, corresponding to 29.5% of women and 70.4% of men.

 

AND THE OTHER OBLIGATORY ELEMENTS FOR CYCLISTS?

According to the information collected, 84.2% of cyclists use helmets (1718 cases), while 15.8% decide not to occupy it. Women slightly outperform men in this item, with 86.3% compared to 83.3, with the mornings also being the time when their use was most detected.

 

Faced with the use of other security elements, the figures are lower. 21% of the observed cyclists had some type of reflective material as indicated by the law, be it a vest or other type, reaching a greater number of cases during the morning shift, which reached 24.6% compared to 17, 6 in the evening.

 

The use of lights, duly installed on the bicycle, reached 22.7% of the cases. The highest number of observations in this item occurred in the morning, with 30% of the cases, which doubled the observations of the afternoon (15.7%).

 

“The low interest in using security elements, such as lights or reflective, is probably related to the confusions that existed on the reflective vests as a mandatory measure, which is false,” explains Claudia, director of No Chat.

 

HEARING AIDS AND CELLULAR

The measurement also included the use of hearing aids and bicycle holders on bicycles, elements that can cause distraction and generate road accidents. In the first case, it was detected that 32.9% of cyclists observed used hearing aids, almost identical figure if differentiation is made by men and women (33.19% and 32.2%, respectively). The largest number of these cases occurred in the morning, with 55% of these.

 

On the other hand, only 5.5% of cyclists used cell carriers, a practice in which men almost double women, 3.98% of them, compared to 6.2% of them, detecting a greater number of these cases in the afternoon shift (3.2% vs. 7.8%)

 

“It is worrying that three of every ten cyclists observed on average use hearing aids when cycling, because not only limit the sense of hearing isolating the cyclist from the environment, it also reduces the ability to detect potential threats or situations of risk,” explains Cristián Escobedo, one of the researchers who carried out the study.

 

“In Spain, the General Circulation Regulation, equivalent to our Law of Road Coexistence, recognizes cyclists as a mode of transportation and prohibits them from using headphones while driving, setting penalties of up to 200 euros, equivalent to talking on the phone while he drives. Neither of them exists in our country,” adds the expert.

 

Finally, the study also considered knowing the owner of the bicycle. Only 10% of cases corresponded to leased cycles via public or private applications or systems, compared to 90% of presumably own bicycles.

The reflective vest disappeared from the obligatory outfit. The ministry says no

With the October Decree, drivers have no obligation to drive bulbs or fuses in their car, and the contents of the first-aid kit have changed. Almost no one has noticed, however, that a reflective vest is missing in the mandatory equipment. The ministry tried to simplify the decree and go through the Austrians. However, experts point out complications in interpreting the law.

 

The Ministry of Transport has simplified the technical equipment of the car. Decree No. 208/2018 Coll. Came into effect with the first October day of last year, which amended the decree on the approval of the technical competence of the car and on the technical conditions of operation of the vehicle on the roads. For example, you do not need to carry spare bulbs in a car, for example, which most drivers can no longer replace, or fuses or, in certain circumstances, a spare wheel. And from the first-aid kit, the drivers could take out a lot of things.

 

The Czech Republic was one of the last countries where the law ordered drivers to carry the equipment. By decree, the Ministry has simplified many things and is actually going through the Austrians, who also do not have to carry everything from a flashlight to a light bulb in their car, but their equipment is mostly related to the driver and is more on his responsibility than he wants to be prepared for. You can find a detailed overview of the changes here.

 

But few have noticed that after the revision, the reflective vest with reflective tape has been dropped from the decree, and thus from the mandatory equipment of the car, also recommended and expertly discussed. This is already mentioned only in the Act on Road Traffic No. 361/2000 Coll., According to which the driver must wear it in the case when it is moving on the road outside the village during an emergency stand. There is no obligation to wear reflective elements in the village.

 

Experts criticize the gap in the law, as this innovation can lead to speculation in the technical and roadside control of the car, but also to reduce road safety.

 

“I’m surprised that almost no one noticed. All of them, after the amendment of this decree, were limited to information on bulbs, fuses and the contents of the first-aid kit. Thanks to this, we almost missed the big topic of visibility of road users and possible complications associated with missing a vest in the vehicle,” comments the transport specialist Martin from Dekra, who drew attention to the hole in the paragraphs.

 

He added that it is necessary to alert the driver to the absence of a vest in the compulsory gear, as this should be clearly and completely defined in the decree to avoid speculation and speculation about the interpretation of the law. Now, drivers need to have a vest in the car.

 

The ministry insists that the vest remains compulsory. However, it is not really in the decree. Therefore, the editors asked for an interpretation of the transport law expert Michal Diablo. “It is necessary to distinguish between compulsory equipment, that is, what must be in the vehicle at all times and between what the driver must sometimes wear. And since the reflective vest has dropped out of the Decree on Technical Approval and Technical Conditions for Vehicle Operation on October 1, 2018, there is no doubt that it is no longer part of the mandatory equipment,” Dlabola pointed out.

 

Likewise, Roman, an expert on transport safety, sees the new Vision Zero security platform. “The reflective vest is no longer listed in the mandatory vehicle equipment. It is hard to say whether this is a mistake or a ministry’s intention,” he said.

 

The topic of visibility is often discussed and road safety experts often resemble the vest. In addition, since February 2016, the obligation to have reflex accessories for pedestrians outside the village has been introduced in the Czech Republic. “For this reason, the absence of a reflective vest appears to be a mistake in the compulsory equipment of the vehicle. If there is a mistake, the immediate remedy is in place,” Bednar appeals.

 

What does it mean in practice? The driver doesn’t have to drive her in the car. “This means that if the driver does anything other than move on a road outside the village in an emergency, due to an accident, failure, or nausea, no one can skip it and fine for not having a reflective vest in the vehicle. The police cannot blame the driver even if he/she is in an emergency state in the village or if he/she is in a state of an emergency outside the municipality, but does not move along the road,” explained Michal Dlabola, an expert on transport law.

 

Since the vest is not directly listed in the decree, it should not be interested in the STK technicians as part of the mandatory equipment of the car, which may not cause it to malfunction during the technical test of the car and threaten the driver that his car will not pass MOT due to a missing vest. Only mandatory equipment items are subject to control.

Half of the reflective tapes are awkward!

Reflective tapes, which pedestrians should wear under reduced visibility outside the village, do not always perform their function. This is claimed by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority, according to which half of the sold samples do not have the required properties and are thus practically unnecessary. The light does not reflect sufficiently and the driver cannot see the pedestrian in time.

 

“The Czech Trade Inspection Authority inspected 37 reflective tapes, of which 33 violated the law. Most often, it was the fact that reflective tapes do not have sufficient retro-reflective materials,” said Czech Trade Inspection Authority spokesman Frohlich.

 

“The quality difference between the tapes can be up to sixty-fold. If they are of poor quality, then we see the one who moves outside the illuminated area sixty times worse,” said Igor Sirota, spokesman for the Central Automobile Club.

 

The inspectors awarded fines in the total amount of CZK 300,000 for the sale of low-quality reflective tapes. The Czech Post also had to pay. Although it was selling quality but not CE marked.

 

“Of course, we paid the fine with the fact that we claimed the tapes at our supplier. He supplied the correctly labeled tapes and paid the fine,” said Czech Post spokesman Matyas.

 

And even if you have a quality reflective tape, it’s important that you place it in a prominent position. Top on hand and foot towards the road.

Children want to be obliged to wear flickers on clothes

On Tuesday, the Kaluga Legislative Assembly held a meeting of the working group on improving legislation in order to prevent accidents involving children. Participants in the meeting are going to seek changes in federal legislation in order to oblige all parents to place reflective elements or reflective vests on children’s outer clothing.

 

The relevant initiative will prepare Kaluga deputies. It is planned to consider it at the next session of the regional parliament.

 

“Such measures will require adult awareness and responsibility,” they say in the Legislative Assembly. According to members of the working group, it is also necessary to consider the possibility of amending the Code of Administrative Offenses in order to strengthen the responsibility of adults for non-compliance by minors with these rules.

 

A traffic police representative, who also took part in the meeting, noted that wearing children’s reflective elements significantly reduces the number of accidents at night. In Russia, such a requirement, enshrined in the Rules of the road, is still a recommendation.

Getting ready for school: how to choose a safe school bag

For knowledge to be easily understood, students need to create conditions for this. For example, to buy a schoolbag, from which the back does not hurt, so in August, many parents go on a shopping trip to prepare their favorite child for school and buy everything they need.

 

Satchels and backpacks occupy in this list, not the last place. How to make the right choice of equipment for carrying school weights, and what requirements the  Rospotrebnadzor has for manufacturers of products for students, we find out at Med About Me.

 

Briefcases, school bags and “similar products”

Among all the school affairs, perhaps the most interesting is preparation for school. The process of choosing new clothes and bright school accessories of all stripes is popular with both girls and boys, first graders and graduates. However, all this wealth must be brought to school. In what? Shopping centers offer a lot of options.

 

We list the main ones:

Briefcase (narrow bag with a handle on the end and clasps); satchel (rigid bag with shoulder straps, which is worn on the back); backpack (bag without rigid parts, which serves to carry things over his shoulders).

 

Many people mistakenly think that they are all identical. This is not true. They are united only by the ability to carry documents, notebooks or books. All other characteristics and parameters are different, as well as all models have their own advantages and disadvantages.

 

Taking care of the health of children, the state identified all the parameters of products in special documents, which listed measures that ensure the safety of “products intended for children and adolescents.”

 

Bright colors, a lot of pockets and the low price of a schoolbag are not a reason to buy. When choosing a portfolio for a school, parents should familiarize themselves with the documents governing all safety indicators in the manufacture of school supplies. These include the laws of the Russian Federation that protect the rights of consumers and the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population, the Sanitary Code of Practice regarding the conditions and organization of children’s education, Technical Regulations.

 

The above documents clearly spell out all the requirements for school bags:

Size and weight of the product without teaching aids for different categories of students; the presence of a label on the age of the child; the definition of a knapsack design convenient for the student; requirements for the quality of the materials from which the portfolios and backpacks are made.

 

Along with this, all such products must necessarily be provided with reflective stripes. Necessary and different colors.

 

I want to warn about the many fakes that flooded the market. Counterfeit products cannot guarantee consumers either the quality of production or the quality of materials or the safety of the child.

6 simple tricks that will save your child’s life on the road

Perhaps the main one concerns you: remember, running across the street outside the junction, that children copy everything from their parents.

 

Child psychologists, as well as simply experienced people,  are confident that young children copy the behavior of adults. If the parents do not follow the rules of the road, then the children will not observe them either – at least until the school where the parents correct the mistakes, if lucky, the teachers.

 

When asked why a child needs to know and abide by the rules, the answer is simple: to live. And the main thing can be taught before the child begins to walk and talk. Seating the child in a child seat in the car, and fastening your seat belts, patiently explain that it is necessary for safety. You will see: in two years the baby will follow himself so that everyone in the car will be fastened, and if anyone forgets, he will definitely remind you.

 

But even better, children memorize the information submitted to them in the form of a game. Rules of the road – an inexhaustible theme for children’s poems, songs, games. And while traveling by car with a child, you can play the navigator: let him tell the driver’s dad what signs he sees and what they mean. Try only to condescendingly treat the mistakes of the little co-driver and do not delay the game. He will say that he is tired – let him rest. Then still practice.

 

Already at the age of two, a child is able to correctly name traffic lights and zebra signals, say what they are for. In three – to name many road signs and explain their meaning, at least in a primitive form.

 

If a child goes to kindergarten – try to draw a route from home to the garden with all intersections with him and offer him to “walk” together, “stopping” at traffic lights, before pedestrian crossings and reminding you first to look left, then go out on the road, even if it is green, but the car (or motorcycle) is approaching fast.

 

Watching TV is bad. But all kids love cartoons. And many modern cartoons promote the observance of traffic rules. However, not only modern. And old Soviet cartoons, which many parents themselves enjoy watching, can be turned into textbooks of correct behavior on the road. By the way, this is quite interesting. One of the best examples is “Well, wait!”. For example, the 3rd series.

 

The wolf is trying to ride a motorcycle with the headlights off and without a license plate, the Hare rides a bicycle on the road, although he is clearly less than 14 years old, and without a helmet. The wolf is trying to catch a motorcycle running away from him, standing on the center line of the road. A little later, he rides his motorcycle backward, holding the exhaust pipes, and the hare jumps under the lowering barrier at a railway crossing. And this is only the first two minutes of the cartoon!

 

Furthermore. Try to find this series on the Internet and invite your child to count together how many rules the heroes violated.

 

Even at kindergarten age, children begin to follow clothes, choose what to wear. Try to buy at least a few things with reflective materials, wear reflective vests with reflective tapes, hang flickers on a child’s backpack, scooter, run bike or bicycle, explain why they are needed. On bike rides, be sure to use the bike helmets and drive observing the rules. By the way, maybe you yourself have already forgotten them. So now it ‘s time to refresh them in memory.