29.01.2009

Take one for the road

In a joint initiative with the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) and FBD Insurance, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has announced that it is distributing 30,000 high visibility reflective vests among 4,200 rural pubs for free. The safety drive, which starts in the coming week, is part of a major road safety blitz aimed at protecting pedestrians and cyclists travelling to and from the local pub.

Commenting on the joint venture RSA CEO Noel Brett said: “I am particularly delighted that the VFI and FBD Insurance have agreed to support this important road safety project. The campaign is designed to improve safety in rural areas and educate vulnerable road-users of the need to be seen in order to be safe on Irish country roads. This time of the year is traditionally a high risk period for walkers and cyclists as poor light and weather conditions make road use more dangerous.”

He added: “The way the scheme will operate is simple. High visibility vests will be available for patrons of pubs right across the country to use if they are walking or cycling home from the pub. All we would ask is that they return them on the next visit to the pub for others to use.”

Val Hanley, President of the VFI said: ” We are delighted to be working with the RSA to support this worthwhile initiative and we thank FBD Insurance for their support. If one of these 30,000 high visibility vests saves one life then it has been a worthwhile exercise. The dark winter nights are particularly perilous for pedestrians in rural Ireland and we will be advising our customers to avail of these vests and I am sure they will.”

Walter Moran, Manager of Technical Sales in FBD said: “FBD are very pleased to be associated with this campaign in conjunction with the VFI and RSA. We would fully endorse the comments of Mr. Noel Brett and Val Hanley and feel that this simple initiative will prove very effective.” Someone wearing a high visibility jacket will be clearly seen by an oncoming car nearly four lengths of a football pitch away (500 metres).

This gives a driver plenty of time to react to someone’s presence on the road. If not wearing any reflective material the same car will only see you when you are a distance of 50 metres or half a football pitch away. At 100km/h a car will travel 27 metres a second. That means the car driver has just two seconds to react to your presence on the road. Not much time to react in an emergency.

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