National Hi-Vis Day mooted to offer workers in high risk industries more support

A group in Nelson has proposed the awareness day.

A national hi-vis awareness day is being proposed to better support workers in high-risk jobs.

Two men in Nelson have begun planting 42 crosses by a busy Nelson road each week, representing those who lost their lives in the workplace in 2018.

National Hi-Vis Day Marketing Manager Murray Leaning and founder Steve McIntyre say the campaign is called Now You See Me.

"What we're trying to do is put a human face behind the hi-vis," Mr Leaning told 1 NEWS.

"If it says to the people in hi-vis out there at work that we've got their back, I think that's gonna make them feel so much better about the often dangerous jobs they're doing".

Near misses and abuse are just part of the working day for some.

Safe Traffic NZ’s Troy Chapman describes feeling like “a human roadcone" at times.

“And that thing's a piece of plastic,” he says. 

“I've had a thickshake thrown at me, it wasn't thrown at me to drink but it was thrown at me. But if they (motorists) just remembered that we are people just like them - A father, mother, brother or sister”.

STMS supervisor James Gates has also experienced some “close calls”.

“Where you get the odd cyclist that comes tearing through your site because they don't want to stop for a stop-go. Or it could be a car that comes tearing through and have come very close to hitting me when I have been putting cones out,” he says. 


Two men in Nelson have begun planting 42 crosses by a busy Nelson road each week, representing those who lost their lives in the workplace in 2018.

The campaign's in support of not only those out on the road, but anyone working in high risk sectors like forestry, construction or agriculture.

Mr Leaning and Mr McIntyre have posted out 35 proposals "to the top 35 companies in the different industries where hi-vis is appropriate".

Starting next year on May 1; they want to see everyone wearing hi-vis arm bands and pins, with donations given to bereaved families.

"We'd love to see an Air NZ plane kitted out as a hi vis plane, it would be absolutely astounding," says Mr Leaning.

Their aim: that no one on the job will feel invisible.

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