Month: November 2019

Cyclists’ high-visibility jackets

High visibility clothing may increase the chances cyclists have an accident rather than keeping them safer, research has suggested.

 

A study of 76 accidents by academics found “no evidence” that those who wore polarized clothing “were at reduced risk”.

 

Jesse Norman, the transport minister, last week said a government consultation in the new year would look at whether cyclists should be forced to wear helmets and high-visibility vests.

 

But research from the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Nottingham University found “increased odds of a collision crash” among cyclists in reflective clothing, the Sunday Times reported.

 

The study suggested riders wearing the safety clothing with reflective tape “may have adopted more exposed road positions, in the belief that they were relatively conspicuous”.

The results “should be treated with caution” however, as it was based only on a small group of volunteers, researchers said.

 

Other research has reached the opposite conclusion.

 

A larger study in Denmark of nearly 7,000 cyclists found they had 47 percent fewer accidents causing injuries if a bright yellow jacket.

 

Cycling campaigners have also warned against making helmets compulsory, insisting that accident statistics do not back up the case.

 

They argue that the safety equipment can give both cyclists and drivers a false sense of security, while the issue detracts from bigger threats like careless drivers and dangerously pot-holed roads.

 

More than 100 cyclists were killed on British roads last year, the latest figures show.

 

A further 3,397 were seriously injured, a five percent increase in 12 months.

 

Tips for pet safety during Winter

With cold weather and outside conditions on the horizon, pet owners need to keep a few things in mind to keep their pets safe, healthy and comfortable this Winter.

 

Shelter crucial for pets as the seasons change, as is readily available, clean water and watching out for hypothermia.

The most important thing to keep in mind is shelter. Pets should have access to a comfortable and warm shelter to protect them from outside conditions, snow and cold weather.

 

Certain dog breeds are better made for cold weather than others. Short hair dogs such as Chihuahuas should not be kept outside too long, while long hair or thick-coat dogs such as Huskies can withstand much colder temperatures. If your dog will be outside during winter think about booties or coats for the dog as hypothermia and frostbite are very possible.

 

With dogs walking outside in the snow and on the pavement it’s crucial to keep them off of the ice as that can be dangerous and to wipe their pads so they don’t get antifreeze or road salt in them.

 

As for cats, it’s important to make sure they have shelter and water as well. Cats can be more resourceful at fending for themselves, but owners should still have spaces cats can go to keep them protected and warm.

 

Other things to keep in mind are to wear a reflective vest if taking your pets on walks at night and have an emergency kit for your pet with a blanket, food, water, and medication; enough to last five days is recommended.

Hi-Vis Workwear ANSI Class 3 High Visibility Safety Jacket

The first option for the best high visibility rain gear that is worthwhile to invest in is the ANSI Class 3 WJ9012-2XL High Visibility Bomber Safety Jacket from New York Hi-Viz Workwear. It is a fantastic choice if you truly want to own a jacket designed to bolster your visibility and guarantee your safety.

 

It falls under the Class 3 type of visibility jackets and adheres to the rules and regulations set by ANSI when it comes to this protective equipment. That said, I am certain that it will not let down its users in terms of giving them protection. I am incredibly amazed at the 100 percent waterproof nature of the jacket, too.

 

Apart from its visible lime color, it also features reflective tape around two inches wide at the arms, back, and front portions. This further increases your level of visibility. Another amazing reason to love this waterproof reflective work jacket is its snap-off adjustable hood, which is made to be convenient to put on and adjust.

 

I am also very delighted with the presence of the molded adjustable cuffs in this hi-vis winter jacket with reflective material. Such cuffs feature easy-to-use hook and loop closures. I am also sure that you will be pleased to know that this jacket comes equipped with a few pockets. This will help you bring some important items with you without any hassle.

 

It comes with a clear ID pocket as well as a pocket intended for mobile devices, like a phablet. Furthermore, this highly protective jacket boasts of its high waterproof and breathability rating, making it great to incorporate into your safety gear collection.

 

Is the yellow vest soon mandatory for motorcycles and scooters?

We are used to seeing it worn by protesters. But the yellow vest could tomorrow be worn by bikers, and more generally drivers of two or three motorized wheels. The explanations of Maître Jean-Baptiste Dall, a lawyer in road law.

 

The mandatory wearing of the yellow vest, which returns to the front of the scene in recent days, is an old story for bikers. One could even say an old fight since users of two motorized wheels has so far been opposed to such a change. It is indeed not the first time that the idea of wearing a retro-reflective vest is advanced.

 

At the Interdepartmental Committee on Road Safety (IRB) on May 11, 2011, the government had already tried to impose it. After a few days of intense debate, the interior minister at the time, Claude Guéant, had backtracked. In the aftermath of the IRB’s announcements, many mobilizations were supported by the French Association of Suppliers and Users of Driver Assistance Technologies (AFFTAC). The bikers had been able to get quite easily the setting of the wearing of the vest. To be precise, he did not leave the closet but in the bag or under the saddle, since the presence of this equipment is mandatory in an automobile as motorized two-wheelers.

 

So why come out the vest?

 

Some misplaced minds could say that by imposing the yellow vest to bikers, it would tear the protesters. But this idea stems rather from the upcoming arrival in the Highway Code of the New Personal Electric Vehicles (NVEI) or Personal Movement Vehicles (PDU). Electric scooters and other hoverboards that swarm on the sidewalks of our cities for a few months. The government has therefore announced on May 4 an amendment to the Highway Code for September 2019. It’s objective: to make room in the regulation of these devices new mobility by imposing them, in addition to the helmet, the wearing of the yellow vest with reflective tape, night and during the day when “visibility is insufficient”.

 

Remember that it had long been envisaged to settle the legal issues raised by their arrival in the context of the Mobility Orientation Act (LOM). She refers to it. But its adoption is slow and the multiplication of incidents no longer allows to wait. The legal vacuum will be filled at the start of the school year using a regulatory amendment. However, the LOM law has not said its last word in terms of new mobility. And one will find probably in this catch-all text provisions relating specifically to NVEI or EDP. This is notably the case of amendment No. CD1951 filed on May 9 by 27 LaREM deputies, whose logic and content.

 

Everyone has the same sign

 

The diversity of the acclaimed machines, especially by users of agglomerations, raises the question of coherence. So we already find this concern in the announcements made May 4, for example in terms of wearing a helmet. It would indeed have been difficult to allow young users under the age of twelve to ride on a scooter without a helmet, while they must wear it when they are struggling on a bike.

 

The logic is a bit similar to Amendment No. CD1951 tabled on May 9th. We understand the concern of members to ensure the good visibility of users of electric scooters or other Monowheel, especially at night.

 

“Chapter 6 of Book 4 of the Highway Code is supplemented by a new Article L. 413-6 as follows: Article L. 413-6 – In circulation, every driver or passenger of a bicycle, a scooter, a Segway, a motorcycle, a motor tricycle, a motor quadricycle or a moped must wear a high visibility vest and be wearing a type-approved helmet. must be tied in. The fact that any driver contravenes the provisions of this section is punishable by the fine for class IV tickets.” In other words, everyone is housed in the same sign yellow mandatory vest with reflective material, bike to the bike through the scooter. Note that the question of the degree of visibility is not addressed in this amendment.

 

The question of the legal framework of these machines certainly had to be settled. But with electric scooters that can sneak as fast as scooter or motorcycle, the question of the difference in treatment arises. Why impose the wearing of the vest to the user of one of these scooters while the driver of a scooter neither more nor less fast would be dispensed? That’s why the 27 members want to impose the yellow vest on everyone.

 

In any case, many clubs and biker associations have already expressed their hostility to wearing the yellow vest.

 

Reflective Solutions for Firefighters

For a long time, Reflective Material has been earning trust and respect from firefighters whose safety depends on being visible.

 

The work environment of firefighters is so dangerous. During a fire, lives are at risk. Veteran firefighters agree that the key to combat a complex fire is visibility – the ability to see others be seen by others.

 

Visibility is crucial for all people in the vicinity – the injured, the attending emergency medical service technicians, and oncoming motorists. Firefight reflective tape helps provides solutions by helping firefighters be seen while fighting fires.

 

When you specify Reflective Material on your gear, you help us support fallen firefighters and their families.

 

Reflective Material is designed to enhance the visibility of the wearer in low-light conditions, especially at nighttime, when illuminated by a light source such as automobile headlights.

School bus safety reminders for students and drivers

Just two weeks into the new school year, police say they’re getting complaints from Southwest Florida drivers about dangerous situations at school bus stops.

 

Cape Coral Police remind drivers and parents that many students are now distracted by devices in ways they didn’t experience as children. They are urging parents to please talk to their children about the importance of being aware of their surroundings.

 

Police offer these safety tips at bus stops.

 

Children:

 

Keep an eye on traffic.

Do not sit in the roadway. Drivers might not see you

Do not play running games or push and shove at the bus stop. It is dangerous near traffic.

Make sure you stand at least 10 feet from the road while waiting for the bus so you are away from traffic.

If your bus stop is on a corner of another person’s property, be courteous and never leave litter behind.

Use reflective materials. There are backpacks and clothing with reflective fabric sewn into it.

If they are going to wear headphones, only use one so they can hear traffic.

Drivers:

 

Always look for children walking to bus stops or at bus stops.

When backing out of a driveway or leaving a garage, watch out for children walking or bicycling to school.

Slow down. Watch for children walking in the street, especially if there are no sidewalks in the neighborhood.

Do not text, check your email or put makeup on while driving.

Watch for children playing and congregating near bus stops.

Be alert. Children arriving late for the bus may dart into the street without looking for traffic.

Learn and obey the school bus laws as well as the “flashing signal light system” that school bus drivers use to alert motorists of pending actions:

Yellow flashing lights indicate the bus is preparing to stop to load or unload children. Motorists should slow down and prepare to stop their vehicles.

Red flashing lights and extended stop arms indicate the bus has stopped and children are getting on or off. Motorists must stop their cars and wait until the red lights stop flashing, the extended stop-arm is withdrawn, and the bus begins moving before they can start driving again.

Bus Driver for First Student Gets Reflective Belts for her Students

A school bus driver for First Student, based in Helena, Montana, recently felt the need to make school bus stops safer on her route. She decided to act after at least 7 kids were killed at bus stops nationwide last fall, or while loading/ Unloading their school buses.

 

Katee Horner has only been driving for a few months and quickly fell in love with the job and the children.

 

“I didn’t know if it was something I wanted to do when I first started, but I fell in love with it and all the kids on my school bus,” Horner said.

 

As Horner was thinking of ways to make the bus stop safer for the children she transports, she was reminded of the days she wore a reflective belt for various training exercises in the United States Army. In the army, the belts were referred to PT belts, physical training belts, and they were worn when running or conducting other activities so that cars were able to see them.

 

“Montana is very dark in the winter. If I am wearing a reflective vest in my school bus yard while I am getting ready to go out on my bus run, those kids aren’t even five minutes away from me waiting to be picked up, also in the dark,” Horner said.

 

First Student Location Manager Bevann Hamill added that some students are picked up in rural areas, where there are no sidewalks or lights. Especially in the winter there, it can get very dark. Horner said that half the time kids are standing on a dirt road.

 

Horner made it a goal to get as many kids as she can on her route a reflective belt. She also spread the word around to parents, asking them to help out where they can.

“It went from the kids on the busiest roads first, because they are the most at danger, and then I just went all around my entire bus route,” Horner said. “I am excited that so many parents like the idea. I also Had other local businesses find out about it and decide it was a very good idea too. They also wanted to help me get all my kid’s reflective belts.”

 

Hamill said when Horner presented the idea to her, she wanted to expand it to other routes and students. The transportation manager for Helena Public Schools and Hamill split the cost and bought belts in bulk.

 

“Even if in early summer here, it is bright in the day. But the colors on your clothes blend into all the new colors—the greens and yellows, they are blending in,” Horner said. “But the reflective belt with reflective tape is still making And I have about 75 percent of my kids still wearing them. I also have a few kids that are close enough to walk home, and they wear them when they walk home from school too.”

 

Hamill added that Horner has even seen kids on their bikes riding around and wearing the belts. “Especially the younger kids, they like them,” Hamill said. “She has gotten positive feedback from the kids and the families.”

 

Horner won second place for her idea in the nationwide safety category for First Student’s “Be First Awards.” Horner said she was honored to just be nominated, and even being chosen as a finalist was “super exciting.”

 

Horner was nominated by her peers and was selected as a finalist. Over 600 nominations were made in 7 different categories.

 

“Isay, second place is good enough for me, as long as the word gets around that the safety of our kids is number 1,” Horner said. “And that we need to get our kids more visible to other people, especially in the rural areas. To save a life, you can’t put a price on it. Yeah, the reflective belts, depending on what kind you get, might be anywhere from $4 to $10, but it’s nothing compared to a child’s life.”

 

The basics of high-visibility safety apparel

Workers in a wide variety of jobs and industries wear high-visibility safety apparel to alert others of their presence, particularly in dark or dim places. Users include utility linemen, construction workers, police officers, and school bus drivers, to name a few.

 

Different types

The materials in high-visibility garments, including vests, bibs, coveralls, and gloves, may look alike, but they have key differences. For example, “fluorescent material takes a portion of invisible ultraviolet light from sunlight and, through special pigments, sends it back to the viewer as more visible light,” the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety explains. This type of material only functions in natural sunlight.

 

Another type of high-visibility safety apparatus is retro-reflective material, which returns light in the direction of its source. “This property will let a driver see the light being reflected from the retro-reflective tape on a person’s garment (as long as the person is standing in the light’s beam),” CCOHS notes. Although this type of material can be used in daylight, it is most effective in low-light conditions.

 

What to look for

In addition to complying with relevant OSHA standards for high-visibility apparel, employers should keep in mind certain factors when determining which apparel to supply to their workers. According to CCOHS:

 

Stripes of color that contrast with the background material provides good visibility and stripes on the arms and legs can help provide cues as to how the worker is moving.

All high-visibility garments should be fitted to individual workers. However, forget to take into account the bulk of clothing that needs to be worn under the device.

Keep worker comfort in mind. “Parts of the device that come in direct contact with the worker should not be rough, have sharp edges, or projections that could cause excessive irritation or injury,” CCOHS states, adding that the device should also be lightweight.

No clothing or equipment should cover the high-visibility materials.

Ensure workers keep their high-visibility apparel clean and in good condition.

Replace any garment that is worn, torn or excessively soiled, as it provides acceptable levels of visibility.

Halloween safety tips

Halloween is just around the corner and the top priority for the City of Plattsburgh is the safety of trick-or-treaters. As candy collecting on Halloween takes place in the evening when it starts to get dark, it is important to remember some key safety tips for those planning on trick-or-treating. Over the past years, the Plattsburgh Crete Center has hosted “Trick-or-Treat on Safety Street” to encourage safe trick-or-treating. Kids and families are invited to come dressed up and safely collect candy.

 

According to the event page, “Civic Center is transformed into a family-friendly environment that promotes kids of all ages to dress up and trick-or-treat in a safe and controlled atmosphere. Children will travel from house to house and collect goodies without the worries of cars, strangers, or tainted candy.”

 

SAFETY COSTUME:

 

Spookiness may often be associated with the dark, but that means it is okay to blend in with the darkness. It is unsafe to wear dark colors at night, especially in a not-so-lit area like the suburbs. Putting reflective strips or reflective materials on a costume or wearing bright reflective clothing can help a lot and need to ruin the costume. Cars will be able to spot trick-or-treaters better with the reflective headlights colors.

 

DRIVING SAFETY:

 

It is a known law to put headlights on once it gets dark, but on Halloween night, it is recommended to put car headlights on a little earlier. The use of headlights will make it easier to spot trick-or-treaters wearing bright or reflective clothing. Not only that, but it will help trick-or-treaters spot, drivers, more easily.

 

CANDY SAFETY:

 

Candy-checking is pretty wide-spread knowledge following multiple incidents in the past where razor blades and other dangers were hidden inside candies or food handed out during Halloween night. Because of these problems, candy companies started encouraging people to hand out wrapped candy rather than treats. Parents are also encouraged to then check the candy before eating it and making sure it is properly wrapped and sealed so it has been tampered with. Though this problem is not so big due to public awareness over the years, dangers such as razor blades, drugs or poison are still a possibility.

 

Being safe during the holiday doesn’t mean it dampens the fun. As long as one takes mandatory precautions, Halloween can be just as fun as it is safe.

 

Feltre prepares for the Tour of Italy with a morning dedicated to cleaning the city

On Friday 31 May and even more on Saturday 1 June, with the start of the penultimate stage, Feltre will be the absolute protagonist of the Italian Cycling Tour. The city will be in the spotlight of half the world, not only with the passage of the race and the Carovana Rosa, but also with the live television broadcast that will see tens, maybe hundreds of millions of viewers, in front of the television screens, without counting the many thousands of fans expected in our territory to enjoy the event as protagonists.

 

An opportunity not to be missed to raise awareness of the architectural and naturalistic beauties of the Feltrino area and its entire area, a few months after the terrible wave of bad weather that has redesigned, in some ways, the morphology of the city and its territory. The “post-Vaia” represents in this sense a memory still alive in everyone’s mind, but also an extra pride motivation to give Feltre an even brighter appearance.

 

Based on the response of the citizens, who took the field in those days to lend their work with a sense of community without equal, the administration decided to organize for Saturday 25 May morning of cleaning and small maintenance in the city open to all. The appointment is scheduled for 8.30 am at the municipal warehouses in Via Vignigole 21 (the intervention will close by 12.30). Citizens who intend to join are invited to present themselves with appropriate equipment (if possible high visibility safety vests, suitable shoes or boots, gloves, work clothes), bringing with them any tools available (small gardening tools, trowels, some brooms) useful for removing weeds.

 

“We have an extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate how Feltre has been able to rise from the dramatic experience at the end of October last year, thanks above all to the sense of community that belongs to it”, highlights mayor Paolo Perez. “The Giro represents a very important showcase: we ask for the help of everyone to make our city even more beautiful, showing the love that binds us to it. I invite all those who can lend a hand, to ‘invest’ Saturday morning to make Feltre even more brilliant “.