Clothing

How hi- vis safety footwear can save life as well as limb

Much has already been written about the worrying record of injuries and fatalities in farming so let’s firstly focus on a breakthrough in personal safety: hi – vis safety footwear.

Buckbootz is Scotland’s own safety footwear brand and is the pioneer and leader in hi- vis safety footwear. The company launched the frst ever range of high visibility and refective leather and Cordura® safety boots called Buckz Viz in 2018. Cordura® is one of the world’s toughest man-made fabrics. Buckz Viz was followed by the neoprene/ rubber hi – vis and refective BBZ 8000 safety wellington in December 2020 to bring totally new dimensions of personal safety along with 360 refectivity to working environments on the farm.

Many of the fatalities, injuries and close calls at agricultural locations involve reversing vehicles and machinery movement. You tend to think about hi – vis clothing in these circumstances but in many cases the frst things you see in mirrors when reversing are legs and feet. (Nowadays many cyclists wear hi -vis footwear as well as clothing and what’s the frst thing which catches your eye? Moving feet). Buckz Viz and BBZ 8000 have literally made end users sit up take notice and there is one very important point to remember: refective on its own is not suffcient. Hi – vis is effective in all light, in all conditions, round the clock and all year round. With autumn and winter approaching vehicle and personnel movements in poor light and darkness increase and so does danger to life and limb. The Buckz Viz range comes with full EN / UKCA S3 standards certifcation. They are waterproof and non-metallic too and the hi – vis Cordura ® material is easily and quickly cleaned when required with some warm water and a soft brush. BBZ 8000 comes with a host of safety features and one outstanding innovation: full EN / UKCA certifed ankle protection. At last, a wellie which protects your toes from impact, stops nails going through the soles and prevents those painful bangs to the ankle bones. The confguration of the ankle protection also brings protection to the achilles area too and contributes to making BBZ 8000 the most snug ftting wellie ever. However, be on guard. There are safety footwear products with high and niche market profles which only have safety toecap protection. These carry the EN / UKCA code, “SB “. If “P” is not also shown in the label code then the footwear does not provide nail stop protection. Safety footwear carrying the EN / UKCA codes S3 and S5 have both safety toe and nail stop protection as part of the specifcation. Buckbootz has championed personal safety in farming since 1998 and is using this unwavering commitment to create new and exciting products to help drive home the safety awareness message in all farming environments; indoors, outdoors and in all weathers.