traffic safety

Reflectors Save Lives, Even in Florida

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The other day, someone living in Florida tried to convince me that we would be better off focusing our reflector sales in the northern states and in Canada. Well, looking at when the sun sets tells us that our reflectors can save lives and reduce pedestrian accidents also in the southern states!
So, how do the dark hours in the northern US states and Canada compared to the south? Well, in the summer, the sun sets earlier in the south. In hot climates, it is also often more pleasant to be outside after the blasting sun has set. We made a map to display sunset for a few North American cities on the longest day of the year. Dusk sets in 15-30 minutes before that.

North America sunset June 21 2011, longest day, shortest night
Sunset (pm) for some North American cities on the longest day of the year. In most places, the sun sets between 8 and 9 pm and dusk begins 15-30 minutes before.

So, what can we conclude from this?

  1. In most places, if you are outside after 7:30 pm (dusk included!), you are safer with a few safety reflectors!!!
  2. This is midsummer. Now and a couple of weeks into July, you need ta make yourself visible even earlier.
  3. We won’t insist on reflectors in Anchorage this time of year – but we will when fall and winter comes around…

This CBS news clip (2018 update: clip not available) from earlier this year shows a frightening accident where a police car hit a pedestrian walking her bike in the dark—in Florida. Imagine how much different this woman’s life would have been, had she worn a couple of reflectors, and had a bike light. Even if the car hadn’t managed to come to a complete stop, slowing down makes pedestrian injuries less life threatening.

Contrary to that, one of our Florida customers is well prepared to be out and about any time. Tee ordered funflector® tags from our webshop and sent us this kind note after receiving them : “Elisabeth – I rec’d my reflectors on Saturday.  I couldn’t believe how quickly you were able to ship them!  I love the funflector tags (they are on my bike & backpack already!)  and I appreciated your email response and your personal note on the shipment receipt.  I will definitely be passing on the word about your products to people that i know. Thanks again!!  🙂  -Tee”

Enjoy the summer nights and stay safe!

Elisabeth

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Prepared for Luck?

/ thoughts, traffic safety

One day, on the way home from visiting down town, a friend of mine found himself in the middle of a serial collision during rush hour. In his back seat was his four-year old son. The police arrived and checked on all drivers and passengers. The police were so happy to see his son in a good booster seat with the seat belt properly attached. My friend was prepared for luck.
Way too often, the policemen see the horrifying results of children not using booster seats and/or seat belts when the unexpected accident hits.

Stuffed moose in the back seat with safety reflectors but no booster seat
Our buddy should have had a booster seat to avoid the seat belt across his throat. On the other hand, he’s just a stuffed moose…


My friend and his son were taken in for checkups at the emergency room. Luckily they were both fine, although of course still a bit chocked. He is the kind of person that always wears his seat belt and insists on everyone in the car doing so all the time. So how lucky was he? Of course, he was very lucky!
The cars could have been going much faster when they slammed into each other, he could have got a nasty whiplash injury to his spine, his son could have… On the other hand, he had prepared himself the best he could to get through an accident with as little injury as possible. He had bought his son the best booster seat he could find and they were both belted in properly. He was prepared to be lucky – or as Louis Pasteur expressed it: “Luck favors the prepared mind”.

Shamrock safety reflectors for good luck
Funflector® shamrocks increase your chances of being lucky. One shamrock for each beer…

Prepare for Luck on St. Patricks Day

People used to prepare to be lucky by carrying rabbit’s feet and four-leaf clover. If you are lucky enough to get a couple of beers during tonight’s St. Patrick’s day bar-hopping, how prepared are you to get home safely? Did you know that adult men, who are out walking late at night or early morning after a couple of drinks are at high risk of getting into traffic accidents?  Penn (of Penn & Teller) is quoted as saying “Luck is probability taken personally,” so why not increase the probability and your chances of being lucky by upgrading to a reflective shamrock?

(Psst. If you don’t believe in four-leaf clovers, a baseball or basketball funflector® tag will work equally well.)
Have fun and enjoy St. Patrick’s day!

Elisabeth

Prepared for Luck? Read More »

Sustainable Neighborhood?

/ thoughts, traffic safety /

Earlier today, I took a short walk to shoot some pictures for the next blog post. Normally, the walk takes about 5 minutes and I looked forward to getting away from my computer and getting moving, so taking the car was not even considered. Little did I think about all the unshoveled sidewalks along the busy highway. Not only were the sidewalks not shoveled, but they were also used to pile up the snow from the thoroughly cleaned driveways.

Cross walk to nowhere (actually to unshoveled sidewalks)
Cross walk to nowhere

The footsteps I followed on the bumpy path told me I wasn’t the only one attempting to walk there.

Sidewalk for happy pedestrians.

We often read and hear about the need for building a more sustainable society. This isn’t something that just “others” need to do in big bold moves. Everyone can contribute by adding one little habit at a time. Reuse, reduce, recycle are the obvious pillars, but the connection between shoveled sidewalks and a sustainable society might be less obvious. If you build a house according to the LEED standard, you get quite some bonus points for a location that makes it easy to walk or bike to stores, restaurants, libraries, churches etc. What’s the point of that if the sidewalks are full of snow and ice?
Next time you shovel your driveway, please add a few minutes for a cleaner sidewalk. It would be a very appreciated thank-you gift to the pedestrians who are not polluting the air we all breathe!
Elisabeth

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Favorite Places to Put Fun Reflectors 3 – on Halloween Costumes

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The number one Halloween hazard by far is kids being hit by cars. That’s what we were told on Good Morning America the other day where they urged everyone to attach safety reflectors on Halloween Costumes. The funflector® safety reflectors will do the trick! They are high quality reflectors, fulfilling the European standard E13356, which means they can be visible to drivers from about 500 ft. Earlier this week, we did a funflector fundraiser at a local preschool. One of the teachers, who had happened to drive by during the photo session along the highway commented: “Wow, were they bright! Now, I really understand how useful the safety reflectors are.”

Best Halloween safety tips - attach safety reflectors to your costume
We have equipped this nasty witch for Halloween with several high quality reflectors!

The ball chains that come with funflector® safety reflectors are meant to be attached to zipper pulls and loops. So what do you do when the robe of your grim reaper has none of that?

Attach Safety Reflectors with Safety Pins

Even if we don’t recommend it for everyday use, safety pins allow us to temporarily put the reflectors wherever we’d like them. Put the safety pin through the seam (through as many layers as possible) of the garment to avoid the Halloween costumes tearing and reflectors getting lost. Low down is good—that’s where headlights shine the most. On the witch’s dress, we attached it at the bottom of the side seam to let the funflector® safety reflector dangle below the hemline. With one cat on each side, she should be visible from all directions.

Attach safety reflectors with a safety pin
Our witch is wearing one of her black cats at ankle height. It dangles nicely below the hemline making her visible from multiple directions.

Attach Safety Reflectors on Mesh Material

It is easy to stick the chain through the mesh material that some costumes are made with. Put it through several layers or around a seam to avoid ripping. The witch’s hat has a large bow made from mesh material, so we just put it through several layers.

Attach safety reflectors in the mesh material of the Halloween costume
Attach safety reflectors in the mesh material. Put the chain through several layers for strength.

Attach Safety Reflectors on Belts and Straps

Many costumes have a belt. If the belt is too wide for the ball chain, put a loop made from a piece of string around the belt and slip the ball chain trough the loop. Please DO NOT replace the chain with a string! The chain is designed to break if it gets firmly hooked on something, so that the wearer doesn’t become stuck. A strong string may harm your child.

Attach Safety Reflectors on Eyelets

Our witch’s dress has some eyelets on the front which came in very handy for a few more safety reflectors.

Attach safety reflectors through the holes of any eyelets.
Attach safety reflectors through the holes of any eyelets.

Attach Safety Reflectors with Tape

The ball chain can also be taped to handles of light sabers, scythes, brooms, swords or magic wands, alerting drivers when your kids are busy fending off evil spirits on the loose.

Beyond that, use your imagination and common sense to find suitable places to attach reflectors and let us know what original ways you come up with! The glimling team wishes you a fun and safe Halloween. 🙂

Elisabeth

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Halloween Safety Tips from Good Morning America

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On today’s Good Morning America, Elisabeth Leamy says being visible in traffic during trick-or-treating is the number one safety concern.

Check out the story about how last year’s Halloween did not end as planned for Hailey and Melissa. Please stay till the end to see the safety demo! Cars, Not Candy, Can Pose the Greatest Danger to Your Kids This Halloween

The girl’s story was also featured on king5.com in December last year. They visit schools to talk about their accident and what the kids can do to avoid it happen to them. Their “STAY ALERT & STAY SAFE” campaign  can be found at www.stayalertstaysafe.com.

Halloween safety concern - be invisible! Witch along busy road with halloween safety reflectors
The number one Halloween safety concern: Drivers not seeing trick-or-treaters. This witch is well equipped with safety reflectors for being seen by drivers!

If you suddenly feel the urge to have more reflectors on hand for your kids this Halloween, you can still order funflector® safety reflectors in our web shop, but please don’t wait much longer. Our FREE SHIPPING includes standard mail via USPS. Please contact us if you need express shipping.

Halloween costumes rarely have zipper pulls to attach reflectors to, so later this week, we’ll offer some ideas of what to do instead.

Halloween Safety Tips from Good Morning America Read More »

Favorite Places to Put Fun Safety Reflectors 2 – On My Dog

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Although one of my daughters often has asked “When will I get a dog” (noticed the lack of “if”?), we have no dog in our house. Three kids and a small house is quite a handful as it is. Sorry for the misleading headline…  Luckily, Maggie, one of our cool glimling blog dogs, lives just around the corner. Maggie is a lab, a black lab, and a great model for dog safety reflector. With her pitch plack fur, a dog safety reflector looks extra cool on her—and is extra necessary when it gets dark.

safety reflector on dog and cars in the dark
In the dark, drivers will see the safety reflector long before the dog.

When Maggie was a puppy and too little for these reflectors, her owner tied a few of them along the leash instead. One evening a neighbor came home and slowed down to almost no speed while they were walking along the street. The neighbor was very puzzled by the weird dangling lights. She could not figure it out until she had stopped the car, rolled down the window and asked.

Black dog carrying safety reflectors
Maggie helped us decorate the bushes for Halloween with some ghost and cat funflector® safety reflectors.

Today, Maggie is no longer a small puppy, so she wears the reflectors on her collar. For Halloween, she picked the Jack O’lantern. Maggie was also very excited helping pick out reflectors to hang in the bushes in our yard.

Woof, woof! means Go Wildcats! - Dog with paw print safety reflector.
Woof, woof! means Go Wildcats! Help driver see your dog, why not with a paw print safety reflector.

Dino, who is another friendly neighborhood dog, picked his favorite—the paw of course! Dino and his master like to take long walks and it is not always that they manage to come home before the sun starts to set. A dog safety reflector is a must. In about two weeks, daylight saving time ends and they will loose another hour of afternoon walking time in daylight.

There are many places to put reflectors, but on kids, dogs and adults are certainly the most important ones. Halloween is a night when a lot of kids are out in the dark, so make sure drivers can see them. If you need more funflector safety reflectors for Halloween, you still have a few (but not much more) days to order them so we can ship them. If you are not convinced, please read my blog post about traffic accident statistics—pedestrian reflectors really do save lives!!!

Elisabeth

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Starting the Month of Halloween with Some Scary Reading

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The other night, at 10 pm,  I asked a guy walking his dog on the sidewalk if he didn’t want to get a fun reflector. “We are never out in the dark!”, was his serious answer. The sun set at 6:44 that day. I could not help cracking up. We get that answer fairly often, but this was in the funniest of circumstances. The fact is, that most of us are out in the dark even if we didn’t plan to. October is knocking on the door and the days are getting shorter and shorter. Do you belong to those that believe you are never out in the dark?

I’ve dug through some Halloween statistics and they are scarier reading than any Halloween story. The statistics are NOT on your side if you are out between 6 PM and 3 AM. In 2008, 61 % of the fatal pedestrian accidents occurred during those dark hours! Adding the three often dark morning hours, 3-6 AM, brings the numbers up to a whopping 70%—seventy percent!

You have probably figured out that I will tell you to wear a pedestrian reflector. Yes—and no. Wear at least two!  That increases your visibility from multiple directions.

A question that we often get is “Are they really powerful enough to do much good?”  Yes, reflectors like the funflector™ tags that fulfill the European standard EN13356, do improve the numbers by a lot. Data from Finland, where  30-40% of the pedestrians wear reflectors, show that for every accident during the bright hours, there is only one at night. In the US there are more than two.

In summary, if a third of American pedestrians had worn reflectors, the fatal pedestrian accidents at night could have been cut in half! In 2008, about 1,500 lives would have been saved, in 2007 about 1,600, in 2006….

When did you last get a life insurance for a couple of bucks? One that is even fun to wear!

There is a lot more numbers to pull out, but let’s stop here before our heads start spinning too much…

Elisabeth

Starting the Month of Halloween with Some Scary Reading Read More »

Favorite Places to Put Fun Reflectors 1 – On My Kids

/ reflector basics, traffic safety / ,

My kids are precious to me, so of course they get decorated with pedestrian safety reflectors and they love it! We live along a busy highway and need to walk along the sidewalk a couple of hundred feet before we can turn into a quiet street where the school bus stops. Winter mornings are dark, so the reflectors are a great way to tell drivers that there are kids around.

Kids with safety reflectors along busy road
You see them. Do they see you? All school kids should wear some safety reflectors on their jackets and/or backpack for increased safety when waiting for the school bus early mornings or coming home after dark.

Kids Need More Than One Reflector!

At minimum, a pedestrian should wear two reflectors; front and back or left and right. That way the chances for a driver to notice you from any direction are pretty good. Optimal height is 2-4 feet above ground where the car lights are the strongest. Also, the more the reflector dangles, the more attention it creates.

Child with safety reflectors left, front and right for optimal surround visibility.
Child with safety reflectors left, front and right for optimal surround visibility.

Our reflector tags come with ball chains to make them easy to attach to clothes and bags. On the front, the jacket zipper pull is the #1 choice. Jean jackets don’t have zippers, but in most cases the button hole on the front pocket works very well since it is rarely used for anything else.

Horse and heart safety reflectors on school backpack.
Horse and heart safety reflectors on school backpack. Most backpacks have enough zipper pulls to hang several reflectors on.

The back is trickier on jackets, but backpacks, sling or messenger bags frequently have enough zipper pulls, buckles or other places to stick the ball chain through. Normally, we hang two reflectors on each bag, but when my kids are in “collect & trade” mode, there can be many more.

Side pockets of fleece jackets and windbreakers are perfect places to hang safety reflectors!
Side pockets of fleece jackets and windbreakers are perfect places to hang safety reflectors for kids! They also dangle nicely to create more attention.

Some jackets have side pockets with zippers so the reflectors can go left and right. Those are also good for getting the reflectors in the optimal height for the car lights and for dangling nicely below the hem. One of my daughter’s jackets has a clasp meant for ski gloves which instead came in handy for attaching the reflector.

Elisabeth

Safety reflector hanging on kid's jacket
This winter jacket has a clasp for attaching ski mittens to. Perfect for the reflector!

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