Chance surfing on the web brought our attention to what has taken place in New Zealand for almost 10 years: dramatic, large and effective backside (and frontside) marking of tractors, combines, harvesters and trailers… courtesy of their farsighted government’s recognition that fluorescent yellow-green/fluorescent orange retro-reflective* edge-marking Hazard Panels are a needed element of road safety on slow-moving vehicles.

*yes, the same color scheme and materials as employed in the Tri-Color Triangle^(TM)!

These panels, while developed for over-dimension (wide load) use, show their viability on all ag-related vehicles, wide or standard, plus non-ag-related equipment. In fact, most examples seen in the N.Z. videos viewed were running entirely without Old School SMV emblems… such emblems basically blown out of the water compared to the impact and effectiveness of the hazard panels.

Upon seeing such dramatic safety effectiveness in this one, relatively-small country on the other side of the world, our curiosity was raised as to whether this development had migrated to Australia (…no) and what all online reference material on it could be found. It was already known to us that Claas sold harvesters in the US equipped with European Union red-and-white chevron panels, as seen in the “BIG T-CT” page here. The Australian versions of such panels found are less-effective yellow-and-red versions… not much better than the E.U.’s

Both as a public service and to drive home again the visual effectiveness of the colors and materials of the T-CT, we present for educational, comparative and demonstration purposes some of the screenshots captured from these videos, along with related N.Z. government materials and N.Z. commercial websites, plus E.U.-oriented screenshots of their red-and-white panels for comparison.

How, in light of the existence of such dramatically-effective agricultural signage on a countrywide level, can the United States drag its feet on much-needed modern safety improvements for the basic SMV emblem (…the T-CT!) and consequently above-and-beyond advances such as New Zealand-type edge marking panels? N.Z. also has “Oversize” panels to go along with the width markers, which are often seen in the video’s screenshots. The extra color/size/retro-reflectivity of those panels of course helps to get oncoming motorists’ attention, though in the US and elsewhere we feel that the substitution of a “BIG T-CT” would be of equal or greater effectiveness.

After presenting this array of examples of how such Large-and-Effective fluorescent yellow-green and orange retro-reflective panels are near-religiously being used in a whole country… Does It Not Stand To Reason that the “kicking and screaming” elements of hidebound, status quo-beholden persons/agencies/organizations in positions of power and influence with the government should be unceremoniously relegated to the Dustbin of History… however entrenched their powers, and beholden to special interests they may be… IF it is floated out that these N.Z.-style Safety Advances should now be the rule in the US and elsewhere?

After all, such type organizations* have already done their best so far to suppress a similar, good of an idea as the Tri-Color Triangle^(TM)….

Engineering societies… especially ones that act as Trade Organizations… with entrenched interests in calling the shots and protecting those to whom they are economically beholden to… should step aside and let psychologically-and-graphically obvious advancements in the field Rule the Day. Only then would they again be able to be considered Outstanding In Their Field.

*yes, this could be considered as referencing the ASABE… those folks that have given you the latest 276.8 standard against SMV emblems’ orange core being “reflective,” though their intention in their haste was certainly to have been “retro-reflective”… very odd for a professional engineering society to make such an engineering nomenclature mistake. Follow.The.Money.

¶ Therefore, let it be publicly put forth here on this page that the adoption of New Zealand-style wide/oversize vehicles’ Hazard Panels, as used for Slow-Moving Vehicles and agricultural use, become the order of the day… at least for the backsides of such vehicles… overly-wide or not… this, in the interest of Greater Visibility, Public Safety and Accident Prevention. Let progress in the interest of such safety, wherever it originates from, be the order of the day.