In India, close 100,000 people die of road accidents, every year and an estimated Rs. 55,000 crores is the loss due to accidents. In fact the Government has taken note of this fact and has come out with a legislation, whereby from April 1, 2009, all new cargo vehicles and by October 1 2009, all new passenger vehicles will have to be stuck with illuminated strips on the front, rear and on the sides to make them distinctly visible on road, particularly in the night.
The US-based Relexite Corporation is a global leader in the manufacture of vehicle conspicuity products. Reflexite Safety India Private Ltd., a joint venture between Reflexite Corporation and Modi Measurements of India, offers reflective marking products in the Indian market. The company also offers reflective safety solutions that find applications in fleets, traffic control, work wear, emergency service vehicle, fire fighting and personal safety.
The solutions offered by Reflexite conform to the ECE 104 specifications, offering highest brightness, visible at wide angles, easy to apply, have single layer construction, are crack resistant and available in rigid and curtain grades.
Reflexite Corporation set up in 1963 has two manufacturing facilities. The main facility is in the US and there is a conversion facility in Europe.
Modi Measurement is a 40-year-old company primarily offering products and services in the automotive industry. The company initially started with emission testing equipments. In fact, more than 90 per cent of the equipments in the country have been supplied by Modi. After emission, the company is now looking at Safety as an area to focus both in the movement of passenger and cargo.
The company has been in discussion with Relexite Corporation for the last few years and a final decision to set up a manufacturing facility in India was taken in early 2008. The agenda for the JV was to make India as a larger hub for Reflexite’s global operations. The priority was to manufacture conspicuity and other safety products.
In the dark, several moving objects are not visible to other road users until they are dangerously close. The reflective tape helps road users gauge their distance and rate of approach, where even a vigilant motorist might not see an untreated moving object in time to avoid a crash.
The retro-reflective tape is quite effective. It helps in reducing side and rear impacts in the dark. The tape is especially effective in reducing severe crashes and found to be more effective when the driver of the impacting vehicle is young. The crash reduction is almost 40 per cent when the driver of the impacting vehicle is 20 to 50 years old, but only 20 per cent when the driver is more than 50 years old.
In fact, when two vehicles collide, the laws of physics favor the occupants of the heavier vehicle. Furthermore, heavy vehicles are in most cases longer, wider and less fragile than light vehicles. As a result, they usually have greater crash-worthiness, structural integrity and directional stability. They are less roll over prone and easier for the average driver to control in a panic situation.
In other words, heavier vehicles tend to be more crash-worthy and less crash-prone. The new legislation is applicable only for the new vehicles which are getting registered. As far as the existing vehicles which are governed by the State Acts, Reflexite India is educating State-level departments on safety related issues.
