Safety reflector

[1] Fatal traffic accidents at night often involve vehicles with drivers who fail to see pedestrians or bicyclists until they are too close to avoid collision.

[5] On 12 March 1925, the minister, the Réseau du Nord railway company and the Touring-Club de France experienced the use of cataphotes to make level crossings visible by night.

[6] In 1926, an automobile club, the Touring-Club de France, offered 180 signals with triangular cataphote to warn for the presence of the level crossings.

[10] In January 1943, a US highway patrolman Raymond Trask proposed the concept of the single cataphote for pedestrians to help them be visible for drivers in a Popular Science publication.

[11][12] In the late 1950s, Mr. Arvi Lehti a farmer and plastic manufacturer from Pertteli, Finland came up with the idea of a reflector suitable for pedestrian use.

In the 1960s The Finnish police and transport authority wanted a reflector to improve pedestrian safety, they asked Talousmuovi to design one.

[13] [14] Nowadays one can find reflectors of all possible shapes and colours, as design and fashion industries have turned their faces towards this diminutive gadget.

In Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, pedestrians are required by law to wear safety reflectors when walking during dark conditions.

[15] The EU use Unece regulation number 3 to categorize safety reflectors in several class: IA, IB, IIIA, IIIB and IVA.