Has anyone a valid reason...................

[Cortez]

It would take waaaaay more than the wearing of hi vis to convince me it was safe to ride out on the roads!

 

[oldie48]

Mmm not sure I agree really, hunting is a fairly high risk ridden activity it would seem sensible to me to wear a properly secured hat, there was a letter in this weeks H&H page 15 on this. Also, I feel it's rather odd not to encourage children to wear hi viz when hacking out, there are just so many good reasons for doing so and not looking cool is a ridiculous excuse, nothing cool about being under a car! BPs are a bit of a vexed question but I would certainly want any child of mine wearing one if hunting or going XC and frankly I'd almost certainly invest in an air jacket. I'm afraid this fellow is a little gung ho! None of these things will stop a poor rider having accidents but may give them a greater chance of walking away from one relatively unscathed.

But that's no different to people who drive badly and have accidents , eat badly and get type two diabetes , exercise too much and wear out their joints etc etc the list is endless.
Personally I only wear a BP if forced ,my BP was a factor when I broke my back it prevented my spine curving to allow it to absord the impact in what was admittedly an unusual fall therefore I chose not to wear one unless I must.

 

[Darbs]

Are we the only country in the world with this obsession with health and safety?

I can answer that with some degree of knowledge. (As I Head up Global Health & Safety for one of the worlds largest employers across 163 countries).

No, we are not the only country with an 'obsession' for health & safety, however there are three key factors that apply in the UK that make it slightly different:

• Firstly, the biggest factor is insurance. In the UK you can claim against employers or third parties very easily (although it has got a little more difficult in the past couple of years). In many cases the 'obsession' with safety has got nothing to do with preventing accidents, its about a fear of either high insurance premiums for activities, not being able to get an activity insured at all or the fear of having a civil claim taken out against them. (The vast majority of accidents don't have a legal prosecution, even though there is a fear of that)
  
• Secondly, the UK was one of the first counties globally to take a risk based (not rule based) approach to safety. This meant that risk had to be assessed by different people, which lead to an aversion to risk and the fear of getting it wrong. This is also one of the reasons health & safety gets a bad name and people recoil from it, until there is a serious accident and suddenly everybody becomes 'expert safety managers' saying what should have been done to prevent the incident before it occurred.
  
• Thirdly, the UK adopted 'The principle of preventability' which is preventing accidents regardless of cause. This is a very good approach to preventing people getting killed or seriously injured, but as with other aspects of health & safety it gets interpreted incorrectly and either bans trivial activities or makes them so restrictive that they cannot take place.

Health & safety law in the UK is amongst the best in the world, in the UK you have amongst the best chances of going to work in the morning and coming home in the evening. It is the interpretation of the law and its application in practice that gives health & safety a bad name, there are no laws banning conkers, hanging baskets, ladders, candyfloss on sticks, wearing flip flops at work etc etc etc.

I assure you, if you get frustrated by dealing with health & safety getting interpreted badly, multiply it by about a thousand and you have a week in my life!

 

[Landcruiser]

As one who groans at the mere mention of Health and Safety, your post has given me pause for thought Darbs. Very informative and interesting.
My two penn'th: Not wearing Hi Viz because of perceived uncoolness is ridiculous and childish. And common sense says that being seen sooner rather than later (or too late) has to be a survival advantage.
And the freedom of choice argument doesn't really hold up - how many people went through windscreens when there was freedom of choice about seatbelt wearing compared to now? I know it's not the same situation, but it's the same principle - there really can't be a valid reason for not giving yourself and your horse a better chance of survival that you would have otherwise.

 

[Kat]

To be honest hi viz is more of a no brainer than seat belts. There is no disadvantage to wearing hiviz and reflective clothing, there are disadvantages to wearing a seat belt (getting trapped in a fire or water or injuries caused by seat belts such as broken ribs or sternum), albeit in general those disadvantages are far outweighed by the benefits.

 

[Nudibranch]

Hang on, how on earth can you equate drink driving with not wearing hi viz?! Are you mad?!
.

Oh dear...a bit too much festive wine perhaps? I don't believe that is classed as equating the two. Rather pointing out that one formerly acceptable activity was subject to choice. Yes, drink driving is an extreme example; it is an example none the less.

Anyway, I am not mad, thanks...calm down.

 

[thatsmygirl]

Sensible riders IMO. Glad most of my livery owners take safety before their image.

They look great and that's what I would like to see all the riders in my local lanes wearing

 

[thatsmygirl]

I will not leave the yard without hi viz, the reason being is that, if I ever had an accident I know iv done what I can to protect myself and my horse without thinking " what if I was wearing it"
Being a driver in our narrow country lanes with over hanging trees iv come across horses hiding under the trees and iv hardly seen them until way up close and on one occasion the sun was beaming down and I could hardly see out the window it was awful but down the road I could just make out some hi viz reflecting so know there was horses there, unfortunately I didn't see the horse further back with nothing on under the trees, I was going slow so didnt hit him but it shoke me up and the rider, he now wears hi viz!! Iv seen plenty of dog walkers the same, black labs nothing on them running the lanes. Stupid owners who just either can't see the problem or to stupid to care.

 

[thatsmygirl]

TBH, I *think* I am older than you GS. I have a JoyRiderz hi-viz jacket for winter riding, which was not cheap and a tabard/waistcoat for warmer weather. I do wear cyclying tee-shirts in summer sometimes but then, so long as I am comfortable, I do not care what I look like.

What's wrong with normal hi viz work wear, you don't even have to buy horse stuff. The normal tabards are £4 and are done up by Velcro so it goes on top my air jacket with no issues.