subject: Reflective Tape - Even Application Workers Are In Danger [print this page] Reflective tape comes in a variety of shapes and sizes as well as applications. While its commonly seen among garments, there are a multitude of uses in the industrial and automotive sector to enhance visibility along roadways and for professionals that work on them.
Another application is in signage along roadways, as well as traffic signs and lights, to ensure that drivers are able to pick those devices and signs out in the darker hours or when visibility is reduced. Unfortunately, that reflective tape needs to be applied by people and that application can put professional workers directly in harms way.
For example, in Shenango Township in Pennsylvania, a road crew worker narrowly missed serious injury in May of this year when his operational vehicle was struck by a passing motorist. When the vehicle struck his truck, the worker was left hanging from the bucket of the lift truck.
According to local police, the professional worker was applying reflective tape to the traffic lights at an intersection of routes 422 and 388 in the early morning hours when the accident occurred. A tractor-trailor owned by UPS was the truck in question that struck the lift truck.
Due to the size of the vehicles involved, the force was enough to eject the worker from the lift bucket. Thankfully the safety harness prevented him from tumbling to the ground and he was held suspended, hanging from the bucket until rescue crews arrived.
While the worker was applying reflective tape to the street light for better visibility of that device, it begs the question whether or not the operating vehicle used by the worker had adequate high-visibility features including hazard lights, cones and reflective tape along the vehicle to signal traffic that the vehicle was stationary and encroaching on traffic.
Its important to remember that there are so many applications for reflective tape, and that manufacturers in a variety of industries should be utilizing it as much as possible to help improve visibility. Its not a complete fail-safe, but should be combined with other safety features such as the harness used by the worker.
According to police, the worker was taken to a local hospital for treatment but reported only minor injuries including neck and back pain.
Why Reflective Tape is Important
There are thousands of workers each year injured along roadsides due to inadequate reflective tape and high visibility clothing. While the responsibility rests with employers and municipalities to supply the appropriate garments, its up to the employees and professional workers to ensure that they are completely protected and as visible as possible where traffic is concerned.
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With proper protection and high visibility clothing that incorporates 360 degrees of reflective tape, the number of injured workers will drop dramatically - especially where that reflective tape is combined with a variety of other attention-grabbing safety tools and resources.
