REFLECTIVE BELT

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31083, 11 June 1966, Page 14

REFLECTIVE BELT

No Interest In Manufacture A Christchurch man has designed a reflective safety belt for pedestrians that can be picked up by a car's headlights at 500 yards, but can find no-one to finance its manufacture. He Is Mr M. M. Purves, who has already invented a dinghy safety apparatus. Mr Purves said that the belt had 18 inch-square diamonds of reflective tape spaced two inches apart on a yard of material. The belt was covered with a polythene tube, and could be adjusted to fit any waist between 28in and 43in. Mr Purves said that he designed the belt because of the great need for it One of every five persons killed on New Zealand roads was a pedestrian, and of the 123 pedestrlan deaths last year 80 were at night _ Arrangements had oeen made with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for the manufacture of the belt but when they failed he arranged with a firm to make it for a wholesale price of ss, Mr Purves said. He then tried to find a sponsor, but business concerns approached declined because of the high cost of advertising the product Even when he offered to give the companies the belt and all profits from its sale if they would advertise IL none would do so, he said. There was no sign of its ever being manufactured.