The police carried out an experiment

A dark area, a police car with lights on, and in the distance an invisible group of children. This was the experiment prepared by police officers from the Suwalki road route.

Today, the police organized an experiment showing how people using reflective materials are visible and those who do not have such elements. The experiment was attended by children and youth after finished sport activities at Primary School No. 5.

Today we organize activities under the name "Reflective experiment." We want to show the invited sport group, as it actually looks pedestrian with reflections and without - informed asp.

During the experiment, in the dark region of Primary School No. 5, a police car with lights turned on was set, and two children were ahead of them in the distance, which despite the light from the car headlights was invisible. Their postures could be noticed when they approached a distance of about 30 meters.

Moments later, another two children entered the road with reflective tapes on their clothing. Although the reflective elements were small, they were visible from a distance - even from a distance of over 100 meters. Children who put on reflective vests were the most visible.

We want to encourage pedestrians to use reflective vests also in built-up areas, because, as we can see here, there are also less-lit places - said the police.

At the end, the policemen gave out reflective elements to everyone who enjoyed great interest. This shows that the police experiment has had the desired effect and the people observing it have seen how important the flares are for their safety.

Last year, Suwalki police reported 14 accidents involving pedestrians. As a result, two people died.

A man is fined for driving wheelchair on a road in Malaga

A court in Malaga has sentenced a man to pay a fine of 480 Euros for going with his wheelchair on the MA-21 road. At first, he was accused of crimes against road safety and disobedience to the authority, but finally he will only be sanctioned by the second.

The protagonist of the events is a 67-year-old man, with a disability greater than 70%, who is also supervised by a foundation for the care of the disabled under the curatorship regime. But nothing prevented him from taking a little walk on the road around the city of Malaga. So he wore a safety clothing went out with his wheelchair.

Deviation in the acceleration lane

The individual was driving the motorized wheelchair in the acceleration lane to access the Malaga motorway. However, before entering it, it was diverted to the MA-21.

The "vehicle", which reaches a maximum speed of 15 kilometers per hour, was recorded by a driver and uploaded to social networks, which made it vital in the area.

Accused of causing an accident

At first, the man was accused of the crime against traffic safety and was accused of having caused an accident between two vehicles, a fact that, later, was found to be untrue. In addition, defense lawyers argued that the law that regulated it was not applicable to the defendant since it was a pedestrian (as stated in the report of the DGT of the report) and did not exist in his action or serious risk (the chair motorized he wore a reflective vest with reflective material hung and the red rear and white front flashlights working) or idol.

The Prosecutor admitted the argument for appreciating repeating conduct and disobedience to the authority. Several videos and photos were found and the attitude of the man was "defiant" while the police interrogated witnesses of the facts - he wanted to get on the chair and continue the march.

Should you wear reflective clothing as a crazy cyclist?

Over several months, one cyclist wore seven different outfits on his daily 50km commute between Berkshire and outer London. Using an ultrasonic distance sensor he recorded how much space passing motorists gave him, logging data from 5,690 vehicles. The outfits ranged from racing kit to a reflective vest with ‘novice cyclist’ printed on the back. Some of the outfits included high-visibility jackets and vests.

"It’s unlikely that cycling outfits could ever provide a sustainable solution to rider safety," Walker says. "The optimum solution to the very closest overtakes will not lie with cyclists themselves, and instead we should look to changes in infrastructure, education or the law to prevent drivers getting dangerously close when overtaking cyclists."

It’s worth thinking about what actually causes accidents. Walker adds. ‘There are only three possible reasons a motorist could hit a cyclist: 1 Failure to spot the cyclist; 2 Saw the cyclist but misjudged the maneuver; 3 Deliberate aggression. In the best of all possible worlds, hi-vis could only ever address the first. The fact it doesn’t seem to fix things suggests that most collisions happen for reason number two.

Reflective clothing is even more effective than fluorescent clothing because it fires right back at the motorist,’ Rubin agrees. "Shoes with fluorescent or reflective panels would also increase visibility. Movement does capture attention – our visual system is more sensitive to a moving target." Case closed, you might think, and in 2014 a study in Canada found that while wearing light (not necessarily fluorescent) clothing decreased the risk of an accident in daylight.

The researchers believe this could be down to ‘risk compensation’ – the fact that cyclists may know how visible they are and the level of protection offered by reflective clothing and so take fewer risks in traffic.

So should you wear reflective clothing? Science says it’s more noticeable to the eye but, in the complex world of riding on the road where you are dealing with a variety of human factors, it is not proven to protect you.