the importance of hi viz

Would u hack out in this ?
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chrisritch said:
I have lived around Daventry for the last 20 years and I can say that not once have I heard of this story. I call fake.


Edit - Not to say i dont agree with wearing Hi Viz - You bloody well should!
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But why on earth would someone just make this up?!

You can't possibly hear about everything that happens where you live no matter how long you live there..
 
I have ( when I was 17) been hit by a car ( BMW) whilst out hacking ..my horse and I wrote the car off !! Luckily horse wasn't badly injured ( cuts , swellings , super stiff for a few days , and two ripped off shoes ) one was found inside the car !!! I was thrown onto the car bonnet and rolled off the side onto the rd .. Luckily to female runners heard a loud bang ( they were in the next road round the corner) and came and helped me and my horse at the time ... The driver insisted he wasn't going fast as 'he has an old car' skid marks told a different story .. What really happened was he was flying up the rd saw us late ..(we had hi viz) Slammed on brakes .. Car screamed to a stop .. Horse spooked and span round and the car hit us straight on .. I remember sitting there on that horse watching the car come towards us .. What happened in seconds ..felt like slow motion .. All three of us while so lucky to have walked / hobbled away !! Not something u would make up :(
 
I had an incident about 16 years ago that was a very near miss. I was riding my boss' youngster out on my own, hi vis on as we had to.

A sieara cosworth came flying round the bend behind me going who knows what speed. Slammed his brakes on and started snaking towards us. Luckily the bend was far enough away that the mare had time to react. She bolted and somehow we ended up in the field to the left. The gate was low (made of pallets I seem to remember) and sort of in front of us as the road curved a little to the right and the gateway was on the bend.

A witness who was in his driveway in his car and saw it said she jumped the pallets!!!

The cosworth never stopped and just sped off. Poor sheep in the field had a bit of a shock and luckily both the mare and I were a bit shaken but fine.

This was just outside the gates of the yard, about 200 yards down the road I'd say.

I needed help to get out if the field, wasn't going to jump her back and didn't want to let the sheep out!!! Luckily she remained very good on the roads. She saved both if our lives I think.

Always wear hi vis!! I have an Aldi gillet!! It's v nice and cosy!!
 
You have missed the point - had we not been wearing high viz clothing, the police would have found us partially liable for the accident. Had we been on our mobile phones, we would also have been held partially liable.
 
Always smile when I see anyone in hi viz as a driver/rider/cyclist I hate the feeling of noticing a cyclist or pedestrian all in black suddenly come out of the dark or obscured by headlight glare it's incredibly irresponsible. When people have high viz on it gives everyone a bit more time. I am always amazed how far away you can see people in high viz I noticed some riders the other day about a mile and a bit down a farm track leading off the road.
 
I BEG YOUR PARDON !! I am one of the riders involved in the accident - we did everything we could to prevent the media getting hold of the story.

HOW DARE YOU ... I hope to God you never ever go through what me and my friend did, or your horses suffer what ours' did.
 
Nikki J said:
O dear - 16.5 = 16 1/2. In other words my friend's hourse was sixteen and a half hands high. And I thought I was bad at maths!!!
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Hands go up in units of four, not ten. So 16 and a 1/2 hands high is written 16.2hh. :p

I'm very sorry that this terrible accident happened. :( I think that it's very interesting that not wearing hi viz or being on the phone can make you partially liable in the eyes of the Police. It's another good reason to wear hi viz and to only use your phone in an emergency.

ETA - Lambkins, yes I would ride in that fog, but not on the road.
 
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We took out a personal injury case under our house insurance. To say we were compensated is a joke, but we did receive settlements. I got no compensation at all for being unable to work - it is called a Smith v Manchester award. It is a long and very sad story which I am not prepared to go into on a public forum.
 
It sounds truly awful Nikki J, I cant even imagine how horrific it really was. Its my absolute worst nightmare and these stories are exactly why I am so scared of hacking out nowadays :( I was looking to force myself to start hacking again but maybe not.

Out of interest though, was it a windy day? Its just that I ride motorbikes and have been around them my whole life, I can hear a motorbike from quite a distance away so I would have thought you would have heard it coming unless its windy in which case you hear ****** all. I was out walking the dog yesterday in a strong wind and a car passed me which I didn't hear at all, made me jump.

I'm surprised the police didn't prosecute to be honest, obviously its sad that he ended up paraplegic however you two deserved something even if it was just to cover loss of earnings while you both recovered.
 
What disturbs me the most about this story is that you were sent home with such horrific injuries. You were paralysed and had several broken bones, but you were discharged the same day? When did you go back for the diagnosis and why did you not sue for negligence? Your injuries were of a nature that the damage would be exacerbated by any movement. You were taken in to hospital in a neck brace but weren't x-rayed? I think that the hospital should be investigated immediately. Dreadful and unacceptable standard of care. Which hospital was it, if you don't mind me asking? A friend of mine was sadly paralysed and her treatment by medical professionals was very different to yours.
 
I was X-rayed!! Unbelievable, isn't it. I would prefer not to get involved in this discussion because I work for the NHS. It was dreadful and unacceptable and we complained of course.
 
What an awful situation, I hack out quite a lot but I always feel uneasy about it. My horses are absolutely bombproof and well behaved on the roads, it would only take one idiot or distracted driver to cause a terrible incident.
I often childmind my friend's 7 year old daughter, and I lead her out on my pony down the road on the way to the bridle path. We always wear full Hi-Viz but one day a sports car driver had no patience round a corner and sped by far too fast, well behaved pony flinched but stayed put; not sure what happened but the car came to a stop and as we passed, started shouting at me and a very confused 7 year old that we were a hazard and had no right to be on the road in 2012 (I've heard that said 3 times now!)

I kept my manners in the presence of a 7 year old but did tell him where he could find a highway code, and asked him politely what he would have done if his impatience had killed a pony, teenager and 7 year old child. He didn't even reply and just drove off, I hope that made him think.. Things that that play on my mind a lot, horses and their riders are so vulnerable on roads :(
 
RunToEarth said:
My biggest bugbear are people who go out in dangerous light/visibility and believe that any amount of hi viz is going to make any real difference in those situations - irresponsible beyond words.

I saw two ladies riding two abreast down a busy A road in the fog last week - they had hi viz on, but to be fair I think it is the most mindless idiocy I've seen all year.
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i have to agree with this although i admit a few years ago i loaned a horse from a riding school over the winter for my mum to ride out with me and another horse. he was a 22yr old 17.2 black shire. we went for a ride in the afternoon and both horses had hi-viz exercise sheets on as well as my mum and i wearing hi-viz coats. we ended up going along a bridle path and were nearly home when we came across a fallen tree. my horse would have been able to jump it but the shire bless him would not have been. so we had to turn round and hack 1 and a half hours back the way we had come. if it werent for that tree then we would have been home before it got dark. we lived on a "A" road and had to ride along it to get to our field. normally not a problem as they were both exellent with traffic. on this occasion we decided to trot along the road to get home quicker and also use the grass verges. even with hi-viz it wasnt an ideal situation. it wasnt pitch black (only 5pm in November) but the light was fading. thankfully we got home alright but we had one very kind lady pull over after she had passed and she said to us that although we were wearing hi-viz she still didnt see us till she was nearly on us and thank god we were on the verges!

it is iresponsible for people to ride in unsuitable conditions such as fog or fading light but i didnt see any other option as we didnt have a horse box and no other way of getting home. i thank god that we didnt have a nasty accident! if for any reasons people do get caught out in bad conditions eg. the fog mentioned above then i urge riders to be aware of the risks and not do the mindless thing of riding 2 abreast in the road, all it takes is for one idiot driver not to be paying close attention!
 
Nikki J said:
I was X-rayed!! Unbelievable, isn't it. I would prefer not to get involved in this discussion because I work for the NHS. It was dreadful and unacceptable and we complained of course.
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But the x-ray didn't show your fractures? How is this so? I appreciate that you don't want to talk about certain aspects of the case, but this has a ramifications for everyone. There would be a national outcry at such negligence/ inefficiency/ malpractice. For a person to have so many fractures and be x-rayed and still not
diagnosed is, frankly, absurd.
 
This can happen if the fractures are tight and not displaced they often won't show on X-ray on the day they part a little as the immediate swelling reduces and become visible.


char3479 said:
But the x-ray didn't show your fractures? How is this so? I appreciate that you don't want to talk about certain aspects of the case, but this has a ramifications for everyone. There would be a national outcry at such negligence/ inefficiency/ malpractice. For a person to have so many fractures and be x-rayed and still not
diagnosed is, frankly, absurd.
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Known several people who've fractured bones and it hasn't shown up on original pictures. char3479, things happen; things get missed.
 
If that remark is aimed at me, then if what you say is true I would ask yourself how YOU (even after 10 years) would be able to relive the nightmare of that evening and be able to be entirely logical and coherent. Even after all this time I find it difficult to go back in my mind.

If it is not aimed at me, then I apologise.
 
I didn't actually list all my injuries. I think the problem was that I was in so much agony every time they tried to move me into the optimum positions to x-ray the various parts, I couldn't stand the pain. I asked for an MRI but this was refused as being unnecessary. An MRI scan would of course have revealed all my physical injuries, and my life from then on would have been very different. I could understand that a general hospital would not want to fire up their MRI scanner at that time of night, but I offered to come back the next day and be MRI'd, but no, they refused to do it. I kept going back to A & E over the next few days complaining about the pain in my neck, back, coccyx, right foot, ischial ramus area and right knee, and so eventually they did put my right leg in a back slab plaster cast. One of the injuries I sustained was something that years later was diagnosed as sinus tarsi syndrome. When the motorbike ploughed into my friend's horse, and that horse was blasted into my right leg, as I was jettisoned out of the saddle, the stirrup had completely inverted my foot which damaged the sinus tarsi, broke my ankle and had caused a bleeding abrasion over the top of my foot on the ankle joint. For the 6 or 8 weeks I was in plaster, this abrasion developed into a deep, festering and extremely painful ulcer - which when the Fracture clinic removed my plaster cast with that buzzy saw which is SUPPOSED not to hurt you or cut you, it sliced into this deep ulcer and caused me immense distress, pain and trauma. The nurse said "o dear, you have got an infected ulcer!" I cannot print my response, I am afraid it was not very polite.

Anyway, I digress. Because they refused to do an MRI scan, none of my fractures were picked up on. I was walking around with 2 crush fractures in my neck - T1 and T2 - a broken ankle, broken ischial ramus, possible cracked pelvis and/or coccyx and the sinus tarsi syndrome in my right foot - and severe chondromalacea (spelling?) in my right knee. Gradually over the next years each injury was diagnosed as my personal injury claim proceeded.

I will not name the hospital for fear of legal action, but when I ended up seeing a top back surgeon privately, I asked him how could a Consultant Orthopaedic surgeon of some repute at this hospital have missed these fractures? His reply was one word and straight to the point "Incompetence".
 
To be fair to the hospital, this could well be what happened. However, where they were entirely negligent was in their refusal to MRI me. I was very pro-active, I kept going back to A & E and then in the end I was able to go straight to Orthopaedics.
 
Goldenstar said:
This can happen if the fractures are tight and not displaced they often won't show on X-ray on the day they part a little as the immediate swelling reduces and become visible.
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I think Char3479 was referring to the amount of breaks/ fractures that were missed. I think most people know that a fracture can sometimes be missed due to other injuries or circumstances but to miss a broken neck, ankle, pelvis, coccyx and ischial ramus after an accident as severe as this is negligence of an unbelievable degree! Whatever doctor was on that evening should have been struck off!
 
Good grief - I cannot believe that some people have read such an awful and tragic event and the only thing they can comment on is the mistake of writing 16.5hh. This is an absolute horrific story and I am so sorry for the two people invloved that lost their horses, I know you were injured yourselves but I'm glad you're still here dispite having scars (both phyically and mentally) that will last a lifetime.

Hi-viz is important and I am guilty for going out without it over and over again, however after reading this I can honestly say I will never go out without it again. If that was the reason for being brave and posting your heartbreaking story on here then you have suceeded in changing my outlook on the importance of wearing hi-viz clothing at all times of the road.

I cannot even begin to imagine how awful this all way for the people involved and I hope one day you will return to riding so you can build up some happy memories of riding again xx
 
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