At the beginning of this week, our state legislature’s Transportation Committee held a hearing on HB 5324, which addresses road safety. During this meeting, Sen. Catherine Osten of Sprague — a Democrat — pushed for shared responsibility. According to CTNewsJunkie, “Osten stated that [pedestrians’] goal and responsibility should be to be seen by vehicles, and they can achieve this by wearing brightly colored vests, among other options.”

We agree, 110%

Whenever a person goes about on foot (or uses a wheelchair, crutches, or walker) he should absolutely be wearing a hi-visibility vest.

Because prevention is the best medicine, it helps to plan out one’s day in advance, taking into consideration all the times when one may need a safety vest. 

Chewy needs a walk! You’re only going around the block, but you should wear your safety vest nonetheless. Put one on the pup, too. You certainly would not want to be blamed should a car jump the curb and smash into the family pet. 

You will, of course, want to put reflective vests on your little ducklings — in addition to yourself — when exiting the vehicle in the daycare parking lot. Nevermind that it was already a struggle to get junior to wear his winter coat. It is absolutely reasonable to expect parents to endure additional clothing battles such as those that would ensue over hi-vis because shared responsibility matters. 

After pulling into the parking garage at work, you gotta put your hi-vis vest on for that thirty second walk to the building. 

Your co-workers want to walk across the street to grab lunch from one of the food trucks. Vest up, or no kebabs for you! 

Running low on bread and milk. Better stop at the grocery store on the way home. You’ll want to wear that hi-vis to and from the car. 

Maybe you wonder why you even take this vest off. You’ll need to wear it went schlepping your bags from the car to the house. Your own driveway can be a dangerous place. 

Don’t forget to put on your vest to check the mailbox.

Going out to the yard to play fetch with Chewy? Put your gear on. Though you are staying on your lawn, you have to be visible in case a driver heads your way. 

Taking the family out for dinner in West Hartford Center? You’ll need to feed the meter. There’s a hi-vis vest to wear for the occasion. Since the weather is lovely, you’ll sit outside on the patio. Definitely make sure everyone is dressed in hi-vis for the occasion. Otherwise, should a car somehow end up on the curb, you’ll be to blame. 

Would it be safer indoors? Maybe. Maybe not. Just to be on the safe side, wear that vest no matter where you eat.

Impulse stop at Home Depot? There’s a parking lot to cross. Vest. Might as well check the air in the tires and fill the tank while you’re here. Vest. 

All this driving around is making your car filthy. Time to hit the car wash. Unless you’re going through the automatic wash bay, you’ll need your vest.  Actually, you may need it even in the automated area.

All this hi-vis giving you a headache? Better put your vest on for that short walk across Main Street to buy Advil at CVS. 

In all seriousness, this conversation on “sharing responsibility” — which is nothing more than finding ways to pin blame on the victim  — is stale.

People have been struck and killed (or critically injured) by cars while waiting for the bus and being in a courthouse’s parking lot. Nobody in their right mind would suggest to them, or anyone involved in the previous scenarios, that to go about one’s day-to-day business, they should have to wear bright clothing.

This conversation is a distraction, especially when you take into consideration that construction workers, school buses, ambulances, fire trucks, and cop cars have all been in collisions despite their plethora of bright lights and reflective clothing.

Instead of asking people to don ridiculous items that work only if there is adequate lighting (street lights and vehicle headlights), drivers paying attention, motorists moving slowly enough to stop in time, and the big one, people driving like they care whether or not other people stay alive, it would make more sense to support proposed HB 5324, for starters. In the meantime, those representing towns that lack sidewalks, crosswalks, and appropriate street lighting would do well to move forward on installing those 20th century basics.

Still having trouble seeing pedestrians? Ask why we don’t require automatic vision tests every time a person renews his or her license photo.