Protect Your Employees with Safety Apparel in the Field

When it comes to working outside, many workers are taking a very big risk. The job itself could very well be hazardous, but sometimes the greatest hazard is not being able to be seen by oncoming traffic. These high-traffic work zones have been the cause of many accidents that have injured or killed workers all over the country.

In 2015 alone, 4,836 workers lost their lives on the job. That comes out to 13 deaths every single day. Many of these deaths could have been avoided had they been wearing a reflective safety vest or some sort of high visibility workwear. Hi vis work shirts and hi vis pants make it so much easier for workers to be seen while they are on the job site.

On any kind of job site that requires workers to be around heavy machinery, whether that machinery is operating around a new building that is being erected or if it is being used on construction on the roads or highways, high visibility clothing can help keep workers safer than they would be otherwise.

Many of the veteran workers on the job might feel they no longer need to wear a high visibility clothing like a reflective safety vest, for instance, but what they may not fully be aware of is how that reflective vest and other hi vis items have been keeping them safe all along.

It is true that older workers have learned a great deal by just having done their work for so many years. The Institue for Work and Health in Canada has reported that a new employee working in just their first month on the job is three times more likely to be at risk for a lost-time injury than other workers. Even with a reflective safety vest or other kinds of protective outerwear, newer employees are still trying to make their way around the job site and figure out where they are going. It is much easier to get hurt when you are not sure who can see you and who can’t.

In 2013, almost a third of injuries that were non-fatal but required time away from the job were suffered by employees that had less than a year’s experience on that particular job. Newer employees need to be trained right from the start that protecting themselves from other people who are operating machinery or driving their cars through or around the job site.

So many people, especially people just passing through in their cars, are not paying close enough attention to the workers who are doing their daily jobs in a work zone. Accidents happen all the time when people do not look around with the proper attention. One of the ways to protect yourself if you are a worker in a dangerous job location is to do whatever you can to make yourself as highly visible as you can.

Imagine you are working a construction job on a busy highway. One or more lanes have been closed down so that you can do your work, but that leaves a very narrow lane for oncoming drivers to navigate. If you are wearing a reflective safety vest or some other type of high visibility clothing, you increase your chances of being seen by oncoming drivers.

There is no one out there in the construction field who took their job so that they could get injured while doing it and everyone wants to go home alive. Wear your reflective and high visibility gear whenever you work outside. You will be glad you did.