Why active visibility through LEDs is particularly important in high-visibility vests for children and adults!

Vergelich von Reflektorweste vs LED Warnweste von heyReflect
Hey Reflect, bye traffic accident!
Whether uphill, downhill or cross-country – we all like to pedal. But especially in the cities and on busy main roads, we always get sweaty hands and shaky legs. Why? Due to increasing traffic from drivers. They ignore your right of way, cut you off when turning or unexpectedly opening their passenger door. Do you also have beads of sweat on your forehead when you think about narrow bike paths? Then you've come to the right place! Please don't get us wrong: We are not fighting for the abolition of all cars. But in 2020, a depressing number of 426 cyclists lost their lives on German roads. And that was exactly 426 cyclists too many. A solution was needed and we developed it. A thunderous applause, please, for your new guardian angel in traffic - also known as...
HeyReflect - your self-illuminating LED warning vest
Who does not know it? You're sitting behind the wheel of your car, lost in thought, and suddenly your heart sinks: "Oops, where did that cyclist just come from?!" This is such a common phenomenon that it now even has its own name had received. With the “looked but failed to see” problem, drivers sometimes look in the right direction, but cannot correctly recognize and classify what they see. It is estimated that a staggering 63-85% of all accidents fall into this category. The cause: inattention. The result: a considerable risk of accidents! For your safety, conspicuous visibility is therefore the be-all and end-all. Unfortunately, accidents happen again and again. Protect yourself and your family by making it as easy as possible for drivers to notice you in traffic.

But how do you best do this? Let's start with the most striking warning shade the color spectrum has to offer: a bright neon yellow. The human eye immediately notices the bright coloring because it is an absolute specialty in nature. Only the yellow-striped dyer frog signals to its predators from afar that they should stay away. In a similar way, a neon yellow high-visibility vest immediately conveys the message “Attention, drive carefully!” to every other road user. We know that, at least since Coco Chanel, everyone in the world loves black outfits. For road traffic, however, “orange neon yellow is the new black” now applies. Exaggerated? Absolutely not! Since a lack of visibility is one of the main reasons for accidents in road traffic, we would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the “looked but failed to see” phenomenon and emphasize once again: neon yellow = visibility = safety!

Led Gurt von heyReflect bei Tag und bei Nacht

Reflector vests vs. LED safety vests

Do you think conventional reflector vests are enough for an extra dose of visibility? Far from it, because only our HeyReflect safety vests are equipped with innovative, self-illuminating LEDs. Other road users notice the life-saving lights of our LED safety vests from up to 400 meters away - whether on a bike or on foot, on a rainy morning or at dusk. Classic reflector vests, on the other hand, can only provide their services as soon as they are in the direct beam of a car headlight. This increases your visibility to just 130 meters. That may sound sufficient at first, but let's assume a car is driving behind you at 50 km/h: the driver needs a stopping distance of around 28 meters to come to a complete stop. For every second you drive, the distance between you and the car shrinks by 14 meters. After deducting the braking distance, the driver only has 7 seconds to notice you. Pretty tight! So let's say: Reflective warning clothing is good - our fluorescent vests with integrated LED lighting are a lot better! To be precise, they are three times as effective. Our LED safety vests become your children's shining guardian angels when you can't be at their side. Speaking of children...

 

Traffic offers no room for trial and error

We admit: Politicians have always tried hard and produced well-thought-out measures. Nevertheless, the frightening number of accidents on German roads cannot be denied. As an experienced road user, you have mastered all the requirements for anticipatory and defensive cycling. Your children, on the other hand, only recognize dangerous situations in advance when they are ten years old. It is only from this age onwards that their brain development enables them to keep an eye on their entire surroundings and to react adequately at the same time. Nevertheless, they actively conquer the streets from the age of 2-3 years. Traffic education, on the other hand, often only begins in elementary school. This makes a preventive solution all the more important: security through visibility is the motto. With an LED safety vest, your children will be spotted from afar, both on the bike and on foot. We all learn from our mistakes. Some more, some less. In traffic, however, there is no place to practice and certainly not for a second attempt. So don't let it get that far and don't waste a valuable meter of your precious braking distance with an LED warning vest.

 

Take your safety into your own hands

HeyReflect is not just a project, but a matter of the heart. Every praise from you gives us a happy tingling stomach. To ensure that our products are not only useful, but also impressive in everyday life, we spare no expense or effort. We always develop our LED safety vests closely based on our customers' needs, large and small. In order to adapt the new children's cape to the kids without making any compromises, we took a thorough look “through the children's eyes”. We visited a second class and carefully listened to the valuable feedback from the kids and their parents. We are as proud as Oskar of the result: a high-visibility vest with self-illuminating LEDs that is tailored to all of the youngsters' wishes. The only thing we haven't been able to accommodate so far is the much-requested jet drive, but what isn't there can still be...

Our vision is to help you and your family achieve reliable visibility on the road. Young and old alike should be able to feel safe when they hop on their bike. The magic word is: personal responsibility. Invest in your health – invest in an LED safety vest! With its unique inherent luminosity, clever reflector strips and bright neon yellow, it gives you visibility on all your routes. Don't leave your safety to chance (or the eyesight of drivers) and instead take it into your own hands!

 

Sources:
  • Statista Research Department (2021): Number of cyclists killed in road traffic accidents in Germany from 1980 to 2020 (https://de.statista.com/statistics/daten/studie/1041872/umfrage/getoetete-fahrradfahrer-im-strassenverkehr-in- Germany/) [last accessed: September 15, 2021]
  • Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V. (2021): Children and cycling: This must be taken into account (https://www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/zweirad/fahrrad-ebike-pedelec/regulations-behaviour/kinder-fahrradfahr -road traffic/) [last accessed: September 14, 2021]; 
  • Kempten University of Applied Sciences for ADAC Foundation (2019): Accident research 2019: Symposium for accident research and safety in road traffic (https://stiftung.adac.de/app/uploads/2019/05/00_Final_Tagungsband_UFO_2019.pdf) [last accessed: September 15, 2021]
  • Hagel, B. E., Romanow, N. T. R, Morgunov, N. et al. (2013): The relationship between visibility aid use and motor vehicle relatedinjuries among bicyclists presenting to emergency departments
  • Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V. (2021): Children and cycling: This must be taken into account (https://www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/zweirad/fahrrad-ebike-pedelec/regulations-behaviour/kinder-fahr -cycling-road traffic/) [last accessed: September 21, 2021]  
  • De Statis - Federal Statistical Office (2019), Traffic accidents - child accidents in road traffic 2019, https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Verkehrsunfaelle/Publikationen/Downloads-Verkehrsunfaelle/unfaelle-kinder-5462405197004.pdf? __blob=publicationFile [last accessed 9/18/21]
  • Kwan I, Mapstone J. Interventions for increasing pedestrian and cyclist visibility for the prevention of death and injuries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2002, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD003438. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD003438.
  • Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V. (2021): Visibility of children in road traffic (https://www.adac.de/verkehr/verkehrssicherheit/kindersicherheit/schulweg/sichtbaren-strassenverkehr/) [last accessed: September 15, 2021]

 

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