Skip to main content

Hi-viz hijinks make a flockery of saftey clothing

Fashionable they aren’t, but the wearing of high-visibility clothing is increasingly either recommended by businesses or made mandatory by law, especially for construction workers on every kind of site. But has the use of “hi-vis” clothing, especially the vest, gone too far? In Britain, the wearing of the hi-viz clothing has taken off - literally, according to a BBC television news report that shows a flock of chickens wearing the fluorescent coloured vest.
September 16, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Fashionable they aren’t, but the wearing of high-visibility clothing is increasingly either recommended by businesses or made mandatory by law, especially for construction workers on every kind of site.

But has the use of “hi-vis” clothing, especially the vest, gone too far?

In Britain, the wearing of the hi-viz clothing has taken off - literally, according to a %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal BBC television news report Visit BBC video page false http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/25637631 false false%> that shows a flock of chickens wearing the fluorescent coloured vest.

A more recent example of hi-viz-wearing animals is that of cows, as reported by the UK’s %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Daily Telegraph newspaper Visit www.telegraph.co.uk website false http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11758512/Cows-should-wear-fluorescent-jackets-and-strings-of-lights-at-night-council-says.html false false%>. One local authority in England has suggested that cows should not only wear the fluorescent jackets but also wear a string of lights at night so the bovines are safer when crossing country roads and lanes.

Admittedly, some cows have been fatally injured in road accidents.

Farmers, though, said that they had spent years trying to persuade the local authority to introduce traffic calming measures to stop motorists driving with excessive speed through the local lanes.

But to outfit one particular herd, the owner estimated it would cost more than US$4,600 to outfit his herd of 175 cows.

Related Content

  • BAUMA CONEXPO show – bC India – set for December
    November 18, 2014
    India’s construction sector is well positioned to take advantage of business opportunities when the government moves to revitalise the frail economy, as visitors to this year’s bC India show will find out. New roads, power plants, airports and other infrastructure have been promised by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his Bhartiya Janta Party comes off a May election with a clear majority.
  • Pothole pique drives UK man into action
    December 12, 2014
    Potholes are the scourge of commuters and the source of hours of complaining around the office water cooler. But some people do more than complain; they take action that gets results, such as happened recently in the United Kingdom.
  • A sinkhole in St Albans near London swallows up the road
    October 9, 2015
    Around 20 residents of St Albans, a town near London, were evacuated after a huge sinkhole appeared overnight. The hole, 20m in diameter and 10m deep, cut right across at the road and well into an adjoining garden, leaving one family’s car stranded on the driveway. Residents are said to have heard a crash before the huge crater appeared, according to a BBC report. The local fire service said it had been aware of a small hole that was due to be filled in, but a resident called the station at 1:30 in the mor
  • Fan’s Ford Focus finds favour with Flavor Fav
    December 2, 2015
    Pop stars are noted for taking the most outrageous limousines to their gigs. But what should a singing group do if their transport doesn’t show up, leaving them stranded in a strange city? That was the question facing New York’s hip-hop legend Public Enemy when recently in the United Kingdom they found themselves in a record store and their taxi to their gig nowhere to be found. Public Enemy had booked a normal taxi amid their concern that their large tour bus could not navigate the narrow city street