Gratuitous toddler hi-viz.

[Wowbagger]

In park this morning. Two young women whom I took to be employed child-minders, each dressed in identical hi-viz jackets playing with 4 similar aged (I would guess about 2 or 3) toddlers, who were each dressed in identical hi-viz jackets.

Nearby were two double push-chairs, indicating that the toddlers did not walk along the road within sight of cars, but would have been in their push-chairs with the hi-viz not viz. Either that, or the jackets were put on them after they got to the park, where there were no vehicles of any sort.

 

[Charlotte]

But Wow - you're clearly unaware of the massive danger that kids not wearing hi-viz could be in, just by venturing outside the front door.  There are rapists and murderers and rapistmurderers out there and for all we know, a simple hi-viz could be all that keeps our little ones from being literally killed to death.

Now read this and have a nice cup of tea 

[Julian]

Even nastier than the AUK kit! 

Charlotte, I thought the rapistmurderers were the good ones?  They're changing the law so that it's not illegal to be a rapistmurderer any more and you get an OBE from the Queen who will congratumalate you and hang a hi-viz medal round your neck. 

[Charlotte]

What - even if you're one of these:

~Murderers, serial killers, mass murderers
~Rapists, serial rapists, gang rapists
~Paedophiles
~Necrophiliacs
~People indulging in bestiality

 

[mattc]

There are rapists and murderers and rapistmurderers out there and for all we know, a simple hi-viz could be all that keeps our little ones from being literally killed to death.

Beware the cunning rapistmurderer in hi-viz ...

[Analog Kid]

But Wow - you're clearly unaware of the massive danger that kids not wearing hi-viz could be in, just by venturing outside the front door.  There are rapists and murderers and rapistmurderers out there and for all we know, a simple hi-viz could be all that keeps our little ones from being literally killed to death.

The Times last saturday quoted:-

Risk by numbers.

11.7m - Under 16s in England & Wales
68 - children abducted 2002-03
166 - children killed on the road every year
96 - children drowned 2002
917,498 - children injured in falls.

So, to really make a difference these hi-viz numbers need to either:

(a) Inflate at the tiniest hint of a fall
or
(b) Be so heavy as to prevent any upward motion in the 1st place that could lead to'a fall'

Think I've seen a gap in the market  

[Valiant]

I reckon the hi viz makes them easier to spot by rapists, murderers and rapistmurderers. So it's counterproductive.

[Attitudeless Badger]

Indeed, just turn up yourself in a hi-viz vest and walk-off with the little dears.

No-one would bat an eyelid.

[PhilO]

Presumably, the actual reason could be that it allows them to spot their little darlings at a distance, even if amongst a group of other little darlings.

(The same principle is used in motobike training - the flourescent bib isn't to keep you safe from marauding motorists, it's to help your instructor keep track of you).

I agree, it is a bit silly, though. Dressing them up in little sailor suits would be just as effective... 

[blackpuddinonnabike]

Presumably, the actual reason could be that it allows them to spot their little darlings at a distance, even if amongst a group of other little darlings.

(The same principle is used in motobike training - the flourescent bib isn't to keep you safe from marauding motorists, it's to help your instructor keep track of you).

I agree, it is a bit silly, though. Dressing them up in little sailor suits would be just as effective... 

But if ALL the kids are in hi-viz it then becomes easier to spot those who aren't in hi-viz and so the wheel will turn again and we'll come full circle. Yay!

[Julian]

It'll probably just be seen as one of those curious fashion quirks of an era, like sailor suits or liberty bodices.  Kids' history books will be full of pictures of quaintly old-fashioned looking children running round in hi-viz and grannies will put their teeth back in to suck their tea and say "You know, I used to wear those when I was your age" to their great-great-grandchildren.

[Gattopardo]

Hi viz saves lives

Or if there was a planned break out thye would be spotted.

[teethgrinder]

I think the high vis is a good idea.
Everyone will be looking at them, so anyone wanting to harm them will be watched. While you were looking at those kids wearing high vis, I bet there were several kids being buggered by the local bishop not too far away, but you didn't see that, because you were too busy gawping and thinking WTF?

Or maybe they were all ASBO kids doing community service and the vests were part of the punishment?

[Cudzoziemiec]

But my child always wears hi-vis! He even has hi-vis pyjamas, in case a bad billy burglar (could also be bobby burglar) steals him while he's sleeping, or he sleepwalks and trips over a self-inflating toy on the floor. Needless to say, he has a helmet permanently on his head for the same reason. There's a special model with a detachable top part for washing his hair. Did you know that 17,698,342 children got shampoo in their eyes while having their hair washed last year in Greater London alone? So obviously he has a visor on this helmet. I mean, it's only fair, think of the trauma otherwise.

Road safety is taken care of by transporting him in a large flo-yellow motorised baby buggy. We've invested in an airport-tunnel style chute to get him from this to the front door. So much danger on the pavement. Shame he's forgotten how to move his legs, we did plan on him becoming a premier league footballer. Never mind, that nice Jeremy Carson Beadle man from the telly says he can be a racing car driver instead. So, that's our pensions sorted!

Seriously, I think this is not so much a "safety" device as a "tracking" mechanism, as suggested by PhilO above. "We counted them all out, and we counted them all in."

[TimO]

Presumably, the actual reason could be that it allows them to spot their little darlings at a distance, even if amongst a group of other little darlings. ...

It worked for my ex-Boss, although he got a kiddies high-vis vest and put it on his dog.

He used to walk his dog in the fields near his house before he went to work, and a black lab in a field, when it's still dark is hard to spot!  One vest later and he had a high-vis black lab.

[hellymedic]

Presumably, the actual reason could be that it allows them to spot their little darlings at a distance, even if amongst a group of other little darlings. ...

It worked for my ex-Boss, although he got a kiddies high-vis vest and put it on his dog.

He used to walk his dog in the fields near his house before he went to work, and a black lab in a field, when it's still dark is hard to spot!  One vest later and he had a high-vis black lab.

I put reflective tape on my tyre levers to reduce those 'pingfuckit' moments at nocturnal Audax p*nct*r*s.

[PhilO]

Presumably, the actual reason could be that it allows them to spot their little darlings at a distance, even if amongst a group of other little darlings. ...

It worked for my ex-Boss, although he got a kiddies high-vis vest and put it on his dog.

He used to walk his dog in the fields near his house before he went to work, and a black lab in a field, when it's still dark is hard to spot!  One vest later and he had a high-vis black lab.

I put reflective tape on my tyre levers to reduce those 'pingfuckit' moments at nocturnal Audax p*nct*r*s.

That reminds me... A friend rode his MTB up to the top of the track between Balmoral and Glenmuick a few years ago. He hid the bike amongst the rocks and went to climb Lochnagar...

On his return, the bike could not be found! 

After a couple of hours searching, it was beginning to get dark, so he gave up the search and got his headtorch out for the walk out to his car. And within seconds spotted the glint of a pedal reflector a few feet away.