Annsofie Haglund hopes her passion for safety will be reflected throughout the Sunshine Coast this year.
The local business owner of CMe Pedestrian Reflectors wants to equip every elementary school child on the Coast with a safety certified pedestrian reflector, a simple accessory that can save lives.
Statistics from the U.S. Safety Council show that more children aged five to 14 die as a result of being struck by a motor vehicle than any other cause, natural or accidental.
They also state that the chances of being struck and killed as a pedestrian increase by 1,100 per cent at night.
Statistics like that make Haglund shudder.
"I was born in Sweden, and I grew up wearing pedestrian reflectors," she said. "Every year, children going into school would be given a new reflector. They are very much safety orientated, and unfortunately, I think we are lagging behind here. But with education and information, I hope the word will get out.
"It's such a simple thing, and it saves lives."
She said in the U.K., every child from the age of five to 15 has a reflector as part of an ongoing program sponsored by Nationwide.
According to a study done in the U.K. by the department of transit, since the reflector program has been put in place, the child pedestrian accident rate has dropped by 59 per cent.
"That's huge. These things work," Haglund noted.
The reflectors Haglund sells are CE certified and have optimum light reflection to ensure drivers can see them from over 150 metres away.
For the reflector to be most effective, it also needs to dangle at about knee height to ensure it moves freely to catch the light from any angle. Haglund's reflectors come with a line and attachment, and she suggests securing them to a pocket and leaving them inside until dusk when they can be pulled out.
The reflectors, which come in many shapes and colours, cost about $3.75 individually and less as the quantity goes up.
But Haglund doesn't want parents to have to pay for the life-saving product.
"I want to mimic the program they have been doing in Sweden for 40-odd years already: to have the reflectors given to every child in elementary school each year. I have a passion to give these to the school board for free with the help of corporate sponsorship," Haglund said.
She has been approaching businesses for sponsorship on the Coast and B.C. wide, hoping to have the program encompass the entire province.
So far she has been able to provide reflectors for over 20,000 elementary students in Kelowna and Prince George, but locally, she has yet to find a corporate sponsor.
"This school year I am going to be approaching utility companies and banks and if anyone on the Coast wants to help sponsor the program, please contact me," Haglund said.
For more information, you can contact Haglund by email at [email protected] or visit her website at www.pedestrianreflectors.com.
