As of: February 26, 2024, 4:21 p.m
By: Sarah Isele
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In the event of breakdowns or accidents in road traffic, high-visibility vests are a real lifesaver - and have been mandatory in German cars since 2014.
But what good are the vests from the Internet?
High-visibility vests are there to make us more visible in extreme cases.
Whether it's an accident, a breakdown, cyclists or children, there are many situations and groups of people who should wear such a vest.
However, the reflective jackets are not only available in specialist stores, but also everywhere on the Internet.
ADAC has tested the reflectivity of some models.
With frightening results, as SÜDWEST24 reports.
What color does a high-visibility vest have to be?
The high-visibility vest has been mandatory in Germany since 2014.
It is required by law to have at least one vest in the car.
However, it is recommended that you carry enough vests for each occupant.
What many see as a complete waste of space has a protective background.
It is intended to better protect people in the event of accidents and breakdowns when they leave the vehicle and are on the road.
But cyclists and motorcyclists and of course children are also more visible in traffic by wearing vests, especially when visibility is poor.
The safety vest must have a daylight color, so it can be red, yellow or orange, but must comply with DIN EN 471:2003+A1:2007 or EN ISO 20471:2013.
High-visibility vests that meet these standards are visible from all sides because there is a circumferential reflective strip that is at least 5 centimeters wide.
How does the high-visibility vest check come about?
High-visibility vests have a daylight color for better visibility during the day and a retro-reflective strip at night.
However, since a video appeared on a YouTube channel in which many high-visibility vests reflected poorly or not at all, the General German Automobile Club (ADAC) took it upon itself to order and test some vests.
In total, the automobile club ordered 14 different high-visibility vest models via the Amazon trading platform and also purchased the “safety vest for children with Frieda and Felix” and the “ADAC safety vest advertising type Jumo” in-house for comparison purposes.
The test only assessed the retroreflection of the vests.
The test was carried out in three steps: initial visual inspection, checking with a rapid test and standard checking in the laboratory.
However, road safety does not only depend on a high-visibility vest; to ensure that accidents do not occur in the first place, a clear view is essential.
This is how you clean your car windows.
Tests produce similar results
During the first visual inspection under typical office lighting, the ADAC experts noticed that some vests were hardly reflective at all.
Attaching the high-visibility vests to a cupboard and shining a light on them with a small flashlight or cell phone LED also produced the same results.
In this test, half of the high-visibility vests subjectively failed the testers.
Misted up windows are also dangerous - this is how moisture in the car is successfully combated.
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A 3M Confirm Security Laminate Verifier test test set was used for the rapid test.
This consists of a pair of safety glasses with a small LED light source mounted on both sides, as well as a card with three retroreflective reference surfaces that define different retroreflective values.
The reference surfaces and a reflective strip of the safety vest are positioned next to each other.
The result: five vests did not meet the requirements and were sent to the laboratory in the next round.
Vests from the Internet do not reflect accordingly
For further inspection, the conspicuous high-visibility vests were taken to a specialist laboratory, which carried out photometric measurements according to the conditions set out in the EN ISO 20471 standard.
But the vests that had not been criticized in previous tests were also tested again in this way.
The measurement results confirmed the first visual inspection and the quick test: a large group of the high-visibility vests hardly reflected anything and therefore did not meet the requirements for “high-visibility high-visibility clothing”.
Only high-visibility vests from the internet failed the tests.
For comparison, ADAC also purchased four different vests from retailers.
No deficiencies in retroreflection were found in any of the retail vests.
ADAC engineers have two helpful observations for customers in the store.
If the vest was packed in transparent film, the degree of reflection was hardly changed by the film.
During the test it was noticeable that the reflective strips of the vests, which hardly reflected at all, felt significantly rougher.
How can you test the reflection yourself?
To know whether your safety vest is sufficiently reflective, you don't necessarily have to rely on promises or tests.
You can easily test for yourself whether a high-visibility vest reflects sufficiently strongly.
High-visibility vests only reflect when the light source and the viewer's eye are close together.
If you hold a light source directly next to or in front of your head, a good warning vest will reflect bright white from a distance of approx. 3 meters.
However, insufficiently reflective vests are barely brighter than a white sheet of paper.
Another tool is to take a photo with the flash activated using a smartphone - with the same evaluation criteria as with a flashlight or headlamp.
Of course, you can also attach the safety vest to a tree or pole and drive towards it in the dark with the dipped headlights on.
The reflective strips must shine brightly even at a distance of 100 meters.
Even with a modern LED light on the bike, it works from a distance of 50 meters.
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