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On March 18, 2018, the SDA was amended. Drivers forced to stop on the road outside populated areas at night or in conditions of limited visibility while on the roadway or roadside must be dressed in a jacket, vest or cape vest with stripes of retroreflective material. The innovation applies to all drivers, without distinguishing between motorcyclists and motorists.
1. What stripes should be on clothes?
What should drivers do – run to the nearest auto shop or supermarket and buy the first vest with stripes that comes across? Do not hurry! You need to buy, but not anyhow. According to the updated traffic rules, the driver is required to have a jacket, vest or cape with stripes that meet the requirements of GOST 12.4.281-2014. Namely:
- the width of the reflective strip is at least 50 mm;
- both the vest and the jacket must have two such reflective stripes located horizontally on the torso; the lower strip should be located at a distance of at least 50 mm from the bottom of the product, and the upper one – at least 50 mm from the bottom;
- two more reflective strips should go each from the upper horizontal strip in front and further to the top, then across the shoulders to the back and up to the same horizontal strip in the back – on both sides (on both shoulders).
2. What threatens non-compliance with this rule?
Outside the vehicle – all pedestrians. For some reason, there is no penalty for drivers for a new violation. Like speeding up to 20 km/h. But this does not mean that the rule can be neglected. The requirement now prescribed for drivers has been in effect for pedestrians since 2017. But a pedestrian who finds himself on the carriageway or the side of a country road at night or in conditions of limited visibility without a reflective vest is fined 500 rubles.
As soon as you get out of the car or get off the motorcycle, step with both feet on the road, you will automatically turn into a pedestrian. And in the absence of ammunition corresponding to GOST, you risk parting with five hundred rubles.
3. Why is it needed?
After the introduction of the rule for pedestrians, in the six months of 2017, 10,2% fewer car collisions with people were registered on roads at night compared to the same period last year.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs attributes these positive changes to an innovation that allowed drivers to better see those moving along the side of the road. However, unlike European countries or neighboring Belarus, it is still rare to see our fellow citizens denoting themselves on the road as “fireflies”. Although in the same Baltic states, wearing fireflies is practiced almost everywhere and not only outside the city.