Healthy Habits: Bus Stop Safety

School is back and kids across the US will walk to and from school and bus stops. As fall arrives it will get darker and less safe on our roads and children are at risk, simply because visibility decreases as light decreases. On average, a pedestrian is killed in a traffic crash every 120 minutes, and hurt every 8 minutes. Almost two-thirds of pedestrian fatalities occur when the light condition is either dark or dark with street lights. No matter how well a driver thinks he can drive, visibility is severely impaired in the dark. Pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters and others not driving a vehicle are at great risk to be hurt simply because they are not clearly visible to traffic.

Scandinavian countries have the best traffic safety records in the whole world and reflectors are household staples. In fact in Sweden every school child wears one and traffic fatalities involving children are the lowest in the world Unfortunately the US has one of the worst accident rates in the Western world. (WHO: Global Status report on Road Safety).

When your kids will be moving around in dark or low-light conditions, be sure to have them follow important safety tips:
- Wear bright colored clothing.
- Always assume traffic can't see you.
- Only cross at stop signs and wait until all traffic is completely stopped.
- Consider wearing a reflector.
By attaching a reflector to yourself or your child you will increase your visibility to oncoming traffic by anywhere between 300 and 1,000 percent (depending on distance, darkness, weather). That can be the difference between being safe or not.

This information brought to you by Safees. Safees are hard prism reflectors that are attached by a simple pin to your clothes at knee or thigh height. Safees are manufactured in Finland and are CE and Lloyds certified and adheres to all relevant ISO standards as well as meeting the very high EU standards for environmental consideration; no waste is produced when manufacturing Safees and, naturally, Safees are themselves 100% recyclable. Safees can be attached to anyone moving around in traffic: pedestrians, cyclists, horses, strollers, pets, skaters, etc. They retail at 6 USD each and come in wide variety of fun designs and colors. Discounts are available for schools and nonprofit organizations.