On Thursday, it will be exactly a year and five months for pedestrians in the Czech Republic to wear reflective vests on the road in poor visibility. Since then, the situation has been greatly improved for people on the road, although there are no statistics to show that reflections can be made.

“One year after the introduction of the obligation to wear reflective elements, we saw a year-on-year decline in the number of pedestrians killed for reduced visibility outside the village for 20. It is therefore confirmed that, just like in Slovakia, this measure and the campaign that accompanied him were successful”, stated Bleak spokesman of the Ministry of Transport Tomah Enfold.

Although the policy argues that it does not monitor the role of reflective materials in its statistics and cannot estimate whether the decline in tragic death is indeed a consequence of introducing a new obligation, it is unquestionable to have improved the balance since last year.

In May, the police recorded 1310 crashes with pedestrians this year, which is 62 less than last year. Presidential spokeswoman Pert Habana said on Monday it was not clear whether the decline caused reflective elements, but he admitted that the novelty and the campaign that accompanied it had contributed to lower pedestrian mortality.

Since 20 February last year, pedestrians must wear reflexive elements such as patches, tapes, or vests when traveling on roads outside the city.

Even in October, traffic police director Tomas Larch, along with BESIP chief Martin Farrar, warned that people did not respect their new duty, which was reflected in the foggy autumn months. Only in October, 13 pedestrians died on the roads, three more than a year before, their role is said to have been their “invisibility”. With the advent of autumn, the police have also forbidden for people to forgive non-compliance with the obligation to wear reflective elements.

The driver usually sees an unlit pedestrian in dark clothing only 18 meters away. If it drives at about 70km / h, it has only a second to respond. Yellow cloth is visible at 37 meters, white at 55 meters. On the contrary, a pedestrian with a reflective element sees the driver even at 200 meters, thus having enough time to adjust the ride and avoid him.

“An ideal element that meets all these requirements for visibility is the different reflective tapes that are ideally placed in the ankle or wrist area, as far as possible the lower the better, because the vehicle does not shine in the right direction but the dipped beam is slightly folded down , “He recommended earlier for Bleak Farad.