SAFETY FIRST.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 254, 7 August 1937, Page 3

SAFETY FIRST.

PEDESTRIANS AT NIGHT-TIME, ‘‘Pedestrians who go abroad after darkness falls and make use of the roadway do not, as a general rule,' realise the extreme danger which they run, nor the great advantage which light-coloured clothes may be in protecting them from traffic complications,” says the latest safety message of the Automobile Association, Canterbury, Incorporated. “Tests on highways after dark have shown that pedestrians are almost invisible to motorists upon unlighted roads, even with the headlights playing full on them, unless the foot travellers happen to be wearing lightcoloured clothes. In one of a series of experiments conducted by lighting engineers, a man in dark clothes stood about 100 feet ahead of a car with headlights shining brightly. He could not be seen by the driver, and would be hit unless the car came to a very sudden stop, or the man himself got out of the way in time. In lightcoloured clothing, and holding a white handkerchief, a man. stood at the same distance from the car and could be seen in plenty of time for the driver to avoid him. The highway was lighted for a third experiment, and in this the man again wore dark clothes but was plainly revealed in silhouette against the glow from the street light. “It is because of the facility with which a light-coloured object can be picked up in the headlights of motor vehicles that the Transport Department in its Road Code suggests that where pedestrians must use the roads to walk along ..they should walk on the right-hand side of such roads, facing oncoming traffic. In this way a person’s face, hands and any light-colour-ed clothing round the neck will be clearly revealed in the light of the headlamps. By the same token, those cyclists who wear light-coloured overcoats or stockings are using an added safeguard to the compulsory use of rear reflectors and white-painted mudguards. “These simple safeguards for pedestrians and cyclists are applicable throughout the year, but they are more necessary in the winter time because of the increased obstacles to the fullest visibility from the driving seat of a motor-car, such as rain on the windscreen and the reflecting qualities of the modern paved road with its play of lights and shadows. If pedestrians and cyclists give some serious thought to the problem of visibility which has to be met with by the motorist, they will be making a valuable self-help effort toAvard greater safety on the roads.”