It is one of the most common accidents. Clashes of vehicles and pedestrians. Experts from BESIP and the police point out that the blame - besides carelessness on both sides - is very often the poor visibility of pedestrians. This is true not only in the morning gloom and evening darkness.
"The law, which applies to unlit parts of roads outside municipalities, requires pedestrians to wear reflective elements in these places. But it should apply everywhere and our legislators should deal with it," said Pavel Rakus, regional coordinator for our region, at a recent security event.
During a week's activity throughout the region, police officers discussed with pedestrians at selected busy places, alerting them to the need to be seen and giving them reflective tapes.
"We welcome every safety feature, in this case, reflective material elements. Unfortunately, pedestrians very often underestimate it and from this point of view we also agree with the extension of the law," said police spokeswoman Zlatuše Viačková.
Pedestrians have no precedence!
However, pedestrians often do not "see". It is also a mistake to cross the road outside the marked crossings, and a very common mistake is also the erroneous awareness that people have absolute priority at crossings.
"A pedestrian shall not enter a pedestrian crossing or the road immediately in front of an oncoming vehicle. A pedestrian must give priority to a tram," says Martin Farář from the press department of the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.
The same law states that the driver is obliged to reduce speed or stop before pedestrian crossing if the speed is reduced or stopped by drivers of other vehicles traveling in the same direction. Furthermore, the driver must not endanger or restrict pedestrians crossing the pedestrian crossing, or is clearly about to do so and must stop the vehicle. Attention! However, this does not apply to tram drivers.
"In short, the driver must not endanger or limit the pedestrian at the crossing in a situation where he is or is about to cross, and this does not affect the driver of the tram. The pedestrian must not suddenly enter the road ahead of passing vehicles and must give priority to the tram," says a representative of the Ministry of Transport.
The Ministry of Transport adds that the Working Group is currently also dealing with the Act on the Wearing of Reflective Elements, such as reflective vests. "However, the specific introduction of surface wear of reflective elements under certain conditions has not yet been adopted. Meanwhile, there are ongoing discussions on how to properly resolve the issue," added Farář.
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