NZ526364A - Improvements to safety and reflective vests - Google Patents

Abstract

A safety garment (see Fig 5) made from a number of panels formed and arranged to break-away from one another in the event that the garment or part of the garment becomes snagged or caught. The garment is formed from at least front and back panels adjoined to one another via a selectively disengageable means such as hook and loop fasteners, snap fasteners, re-attachable adhesive patches and the like.

Description

526364 Wfmm ■ mm* ;NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT, 1953 ;No: 526364, 527870, 528601 ;Date: 6 June 2003, 27 August 2003, 30 September 2003 ;COMPLETE SPECIFICATION ;IMPROVEMENTS IN/OR RELATING TO SAFETY AND REFLECTIVE VESTS ;We, AUGUST DEAN TRADING (NZ) LIMITED, a New Zealand company of 10D Burrett Avenue, Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: ;-2- ;The present invention relates to a safety garment and particularly although not solely, to a safety garment of high visibility and which can easily breakaway from a user, when desired. ;Safety garments constructed from at least in part a reflective material are well known in the art. These are in use for various applications where the wearer of the garment must be highly visible such as in operations involving construction or moving equipment or operations conducted at night. They impart to the wearer high visibility and therefore aid in the safety of that wearer. The garments can be in the form of a jacket, a vest, or other similar type garments which can be readily slipped on and off the wearer and may be done up at the front by buttons, zips, Velcro ™ or similar. Such safety garments usually come in a single size and they are usually loose fitting on the wearer so as not to be restrictive to the movements of the wearer. They also offer ventilation. ;In a hazardous environment (such as often encountered where high visibility is also desirable) such as in the vicinity of heavy equipment, such loose fitting garments may however also pose a danger to the wearer. The excess fabric from the garment may become trapped, caught or snagged by an object such as for example a lever, belt drive, auger, spindle or code which the user is operating or using if care is not observed. The garment may become trapped in or on moving equipment or machinery and thus may draw the wearer into contact with such equipment or machinery and thus become drawn in. In such a situation, the operator may become unable to disengage themselves from the equipment or machinery and thus become drawn in. The operator may become caught in various other equipment or activate and cause equipment to become active that otherwise should not. Generally this is an undesirable and unsafe situation. ;It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a safety garment which overcomes the abovementioned disadvantages or which at least provide the public with a useful choice. ;Accordingly in a first aspect the present invention consists in a break-away safety garment comprising or including of a front panel and a back panel to define, when assembled, intellectual^property ofice ;28 SEP 2005 ;RECFmcp ;-3- ;a garment having a top, bottom and side regions to cover a substantial part of the torso of a wearer, ;at least a torso aperture at or toward said bottom region, a neck aperture at or towards said top region, and an arm aperture on each of said side regions and between said neck and torso aperture wherein said front and back panels are engaged together by low-force selectively disengageable joins between, ;(a) the torso aperture and each of said arm apertures ("side joins") and ;(b) said arm apertures and said neck aperture ("top joins"), ;so that said front panel may break-away at least in part from said back panel to free a wearer from said garment. ;Preferably said safety garment is a vest. ;Alternatively said garment may be in the form of a jacket with detachable sleeves which are joined by said low-force selectively disengageable join to one of either or both said front panel and back panel. ;Preferably said garment has, at least on said side joins via adjustment of said low-force selectively disengageable join, the ability to adjust the front panel in relation to the back panel to accommodate differing users. ;Preferably said low-force selectively disengageable join is defined by at least one or more materials selected from the following: ;hook and loop fasteners, ;re-adherable adhesive patches, ;snap fasteners, ;dome fasteners, ;or other such re-securable yet low-force releasable engagements known in the art. ;Preferably said material is a hook and loop fastener. ;Preferably said front panel is divided vertically into two portions which are selectively securable to each other by said material to allow the user to open the garment to do and undo the garment. ;Alternatively said front panel is one piece and the garment is slid or pulled over the head of the user. ;intellbu ual property office i of NZ ;28 SEP 2005 ;—received ;-4- ;Preferably said safety garment in whole or in part includes regions of reflectivity. ;Preferably said detachable sleeves join with at least one low force selectively disengageable portion to both and/or either said front and back panel(s). ;In a second aspect the present invention consists in a break-away safety garment comprising or including of a front panel and a back panel to define, when assembled a garment having a top, bottom and side regions to cover a substantial part of the torso of a wearer an aperture in said garment, when assembled, provided at least at each of or toward said bottom region (a torso aperture), at or towards said top region (a neck aperture), and on each of said side regions and between said neck and torso aperture (arm apertures) wherein said front and back panels are engaged together by low-force selectively disengageable joins between ;(a) the torso aperture and each of said arm apertures (along "side joins") and ;(b) each said arm apertures and said neck aperture (along "top joins"), ;so that said front panel may break-away at least in part from said back panel to free a wearer from said garment. ;Preferably said safety garment is a vest. ;Alternatively said garment may be in the form of a jacket with detachable sleeves which are joined by said low-force selectively disengageable join to one of either or both said front panel and back panel. ;Preferably said garment has, at least on said side joins via adjustment of said low-force selectively disengageable join, the ability to adjust the front panel in relation to the back panel to accommodate differing users. ;Preferably said low-force selectively disengageable join is defined by at least on or more materials selected from the following: ;hook and loop fasteners, ;re-adherable adhesive patches, r- ;intellectual property office snap fasteners, 0F Nz dome fasteners, 2 8 SEP 2005 ;beceivfh ;or other such re-securable yet low-force releasable engagements known in the art. ;Preferably said material is a hook and loop fastener. ;Preferably said front panel is divided vertically to two portions which are selectively securable to each other by said material to allow the user to open the garment to do and undo the garment. ;Alternatively said front panel is one piece and the garment is slid or pulled over the head of the user. ;Preferably said safety garment in whole or in part includes regions of reflectivity. ;Preferably said detachable sleeves join with at least one low force selectively disengageable portion to both and/or either said front and back panel(s). ;In a third aspect the present invention consists in a safety garment which can be worn by a user which comprises or includes at least one extremity of said garment securable by a low force releasable securement, ;wherein when said garment extremity becomes snagged or caught by an object then said low force releasable securement will release to free said garment extremity (and the user) from said snag or catch. ;Preferably said safety garment is a vest. ;Alternatively said safety garment is a jacket. ;Preferably said garment may be in the form of a jacket with detachable sleeves which are joined by said low-force selectively disengageable join to one of either or both said front panel and back panel ;Preferably said low-force selectively disengageable releasable securement is defined by at least on or more materials selected from the following hook and loop fasteners, ;re-adherable adhesive patches, ;snap fasteners, ;dome fasteners, ;or other such re-securable yet low-force releasable engagements known in the intellectual property office of n.z. ;28 SEP 2005 RECElVFn ;-6- ;art. ;Preferably said garment has a front panel which is divided vertically into two portions which are selectively securable to each other by said material to allow the user to open the garment to do and undo the garment. ;Alternatively said front panel is one piece and the garment is slid or pulled over the head of the user. ;Preferably said garment is an upper body garment which includes a hem at the extremity of the upper torso. ;Preferably said hem is located about the lower regions of the upper torso. ;Preferably said hem is proximate to the waist of the wearer. ;Preferably there is a split in that portion of said garment to be at the back of the user of the safety garment. ;Preferably said split is vertical when the safety garment is worn. ;Preferably said safety garment in whole or part includes regions of reflectivity. ;Preferably said split in the back of the safety garment extends for at least 150mm. ;Preferably said split extends from a free edge of said garment. ;Preferably said low force releasable securement is achieved by Velcro ®. ;Preferably said low force releasable securement is 50mm wide. ;In a fourth aspect the present invention consists in a safety garment which can be worn by a user, ;wherein there is at least one region which includes a split and wherein said material adjacent said split is held together over at least part of the length of said split by a low force releasable securement means, ;wherein, in use should said at least one region become snagged or caught, by an object/said low force releasable securement means will disengage to free the user of the snag or catch. ;Preferably said safety garment is a vest. ;Alternatively said safety garment is a jacket. ;Preferably said low-force selectively disengageable releasable securement is defined by at least on or more materials selected from the following: ;intellfcu IUAL property office i of N.Z. ;28 SEP 2005 ;—received ;-7- ;hook and loop fasteners, ;re-adherable adhesive patches, ;snap fasteners, ;dome fasteners, ;or other such re-securable yet low-force releasable engagements known in the art. ;Preferably said garment has a front panel which is divided vertically into two portions which are selectively securable to each other by said material to allow the user to open the garment to do and undo the garment. ;Alternatively said front panel is one piece and the garment is slid or pulled over the head of the user. ;Preferably said garment is an upper body garment which includes a hem at the extremity of the upper torso. ;Preferably said hem is located about the lower regions of the upper torso. ;Preferably said hem is proximate to the waist of the wearer. ;Preferably there is a split in that portion of said garment to be at the back of the user of the garment. ;Preferably said split is vertical when the safety garment is worn. ;Preferably said safety garment in whole or part includes regions of reflectivity. ;Preferably said split in the back of the safety garment extends for at least 150mm. ;Preferably said split extends from a free edge of said garment. ;Preferably said low force releasable securement is achieved by Velcro ®. ;Preferably said low force releasable securement is 50mm wide. ;In a fifth aspect the present invention consists in a safety garment as described herein with reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings. ;In a sixth aspect the present invention consists in a garment incorporating at least one or more low force releasable securement(s) as described herein with reference to one or more of the accompanying drawings. ;intellectual property office of n.z. ;28 SEP 2005 ;RECEIVED ;-8- ;In a seventh aspect the present invention consists in a method of providing a safety garment as described herein with reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings. ;This invention may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or indicated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, and any or all combinations of any two or more of said parts, elements or features, and where specific integers are mentioned herein which have known equivalents in the art to which this invention relates, such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if individually set forth. ;The term 'comprising' as used in this specification means 'consisting at least in part of, that is to say when interpreting statements in this specification which include that term, the features, prefaces by that term in each statement, all need to be present but other features can also be present. ;The foregoing description of the invention includes preferred forms thereof. Modifications may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims. ;A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: ;Figure 1 is the front view of the safety garment of the present invention, ;Figure 2 is the outside view of the back panel of the safety garment, ;Figure 3 is the inside view of front panel of the safety garment, ;Figure 4 is the inside view of alternative embodiment of front panel consisting of two panel portions allowing the formation of a jacket or vest, ;Figure 5 is the perspective view of the filly assembled garment, ;Figure 6 shows an alternative embodiment of the present invention where the joins traverse a different path, ;Figure 7 is a figure similar to that of Figure 5, with the addition of a sleeve, Figure 8 is a view of the sleeve attachable to form a jacket, ;Figure 9 illustrates the situation when excess fabric of the safety garment is caught in machinery, ;intellectual property ofice of n.z. ;2 8 SEP 2005 RECEIVED ;J ;Figure 10 is a rear view of a vest type safety garment with a split in the back and a releasable tab in the secure position across the split, ;Figure 11 is a close up of the Detail A from Figure 10, ;Figure 12 is a similar view to that of Figure 10 with the exception that the vest has become snagged on an object which has then released the Velcro ® tab across the split to then release the object from the vest and hence the wearer, and ;Figure 13 is a close up of the Detail B from Figure 12. ;With reference to Figures 1 through 9, there is shown a front panel 1 of a safety garment 2 of the present invention in the form of a vest and Figure 2 shows the back panel 3 of said safety garment. When the front panel 1 and the back panel 3 of the vest 2 are engaged, there is provided an assembled garment defining a neck aperture 4 for accommodating the neck of a wearer (not shown), an arm aperture 5 on each side of said garment for accommodating each arm of a person and a torso aperture 6 for accommodating the lower torso of a person. The front 1 and back 3 panels are engaged to each other at joins. The top joins 7 are between the neck aperture 4 and each arm aperture 5 and the side joins 8 are between each arm aperture 5 and torso aperture 6. Both the top and side joins are characterised as low force selectively releasable joins of a material for releasably securing the front panel 1 to said back panel 3. In the preferred form, the material is a hook and loop fastener, such as for example Velcro® and strips. Either the hook or the loop of the hook and loop fastener may be fixed to the front or back panel. It does not really matter which way around they are, provided one edge of the hook and loop fastening is positioned to enable each of the front and back panel to be releasably secured. ;However, it will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that other low force selectively releasable joins can be effected by materials such as dome fasteners, other hook and loop style fastenings, readherable adhesive patches, snap fasteners or other such low force selectively releasable engagement means which are known in the art could also be used. ;With reference to Figure 3, the inner surface of the front panel 1 is provided at the sides with at least one (and preferably two) lines of side join material 9 at each side between that part forming the torso aperture 6 and that part forming each arm aperture intellectual property of N2. ;2 8 SEP 2005 ;5. The top join fasteners at the top joins between that part forming each arm aperture 5 and that part forming neck aperture 4 are of single horizontal strips. It is appreciated that other arrangements of the fasteners could be provided, for example wide fasteners may only need one such strip or thinner ones may require more than two. ;As can be seen from Figure 3, the side join fasteners 9 provided at the side joins 7 of the back panel are of a plurality of horizontal strips. This is to allow size adjustments for accommodating different sizes of wearers. However this arrangement may be reversed between the front panel and back panel, for example, front panel has horizontal strips and the back panel has vertical strips. The perpendicular alignment of the horizontal to the vertical of the side fasteners on the front and back panels as such that the user can adjust the garment about their waist and also the vertical alignment of the front and back panel for the best fit of the garment to the wearer. ;The front and back panels are fabricated from material that is at least partially reflective and may have additional bands 11 provided on the outside of the vest. ;In one form, the front panel is made of two panels, a left panel portion 1A and a right panel portion IB as shown in Figure 4. The two panels are of substantially the same size. In this preferment, front fasteners 12 (of a low force type as described above) are used to secure the left and right panel portions together to form a closable garment. In the preferred form, a plurality of front fasteners 12A (e.g. hooks of a hook and loop style fastener) are provided on the inner surface of said left panel portion 1A and a plurality of front fasteners 12B (e.g. loops of a hook and loop style fastener) are provided on the outer surface of said right panel portion IB. However it is envisaged that alternative form may be adopted, for example, the fasteners of the left panel can be provided on the outer surface of the left panel and on the inner surface for said right panel, and they may further be a combination of horizontal and vertical fastener strips, or both vertical and may consist of any number of strips as required. ;In another form the front panel may be a one piece construction similar to that of the rear panel 3, such that the resulting garment when assembled is not put on by the user as a jacket normally would (by opening of the front and sliding the arm into the sleeves or arm aperture 5) but rather by the user sliding the resulting garment over their head in a pull over style. Such forms of the garment reduce the amount of low intellectual property office i of n.z. ;2 8 SEP 2005 ;RCP.C lAiCMV ;-11- ;force selectively releasable joins material that is present on the jacket. Such may be desirable when there are materials (e.g. tar and similar) that may clog the material up and thus impair or prevent the material from working. ;As shown in Figure 4, in the preferred form, pockets 13A and 13B which offer the wearer storage capability when worn are provided one on the inner surface of the left panel portion 1A and also provided on the outer surface of the left panel portion. While only one arrangement of the pockets is depicted in Figure 4, it should be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that other arrangements and various types of pockets may also be provided. ;In the situation where an object or machinery 13, as shown in Figure 9, should snag the garment at either one of the panels, the low force securements at the respective joints will be released thus allowing the garment to breakaway wholly or in part from the body of a wearer, freeing the wearer. In the situation where there is violent engagement of vest with machinery the fasteners will rapidly disengage leaving the wearer separated from the rest and unhurt. In slow engagement situations, the wearer may have a number of options to untangle themselves from the garment. ;The safety garment of the present invention is not limited to a vest. Other forms of garments, such as a jacket or short-sleeved garment may also be adopted. ;A jacket form of the safety garment is shown with one sleeve 14 attached in Figure 7. The sleeve has a sleeve engagement portion 15 which has a component of the low force selectively disengageable material on its first 16 and second 17 mating surfaces. The engagement portion 14 fits in the shoulder join 7. The overlapping shoulder join 7 has (as previously described) on the inner surface of the upper join, one part of a selectively engagable material (such as loop of a hook and loop fastener) and on the lower part of the overlapping join the complimentary part of the selectively engagable material (such as the hook of a hook and loop fastener). The sleeve engagement portion 15 has likewise, for example hook on its upper mating surface 16 and loop on its lower mating surface 17 such that it fits between and engages with the upper and lower parts and their respective low force releasable fastenings of the overlapping shoulder join 7, and is retained in the join which still is held together due intellectual property office of n.z. ;2 8 SEP 2005 ;RECEIVED ;to the complimentary engageable nature of the sleeve engagement 15 with the front and back panels of the shoulder pin 7. ;The user when putting the garment on places it on their body in the normal way and their arm passes through the arm aperture 5, into the arm opening 18 of the sleeve 14, and out the hand aperture 19. The same assembly is generally on the other side of the garment to make a full jacket. ;There may be more than one sleeve engagement 15 per sleeve, for example another portion may engage the side join 8, or additional fastening points between the sleeve and safety garment. The sleeve and garment joined in this manner will allow either front or back panels to be escaped from should they get caught or snag as well as the sleeve should it do so. The sleeve may have further lines of separation down its length to allow further easier safety removal. ;Alternatively the side joins 8 of the garment may travel any path from the torso aperture 6 to the arm aperture 5, such as shown in Figure 6A and 6B. The top joins 7 may also be further down from the top of the garment; either towards the front or the back, provided they still run from the arm aperture 5 to the neck aperture 4. Any path, interrupted or otherwise is applicable provided the basis of running from the torso aperture to the arm aperture and from the arm aperture to the neck aperture is maintained. ;The sleeve may also be shorter in a short sleeve format. The ability to separate the garment also allows over and above its adjustability, the ability to mix and match parts for size. ;With reference to Figures 10 through 13 there is shown a safety garment in the form of a vest that has the present invention in the rear portion of the vest. The vest 21 is constructed of material that is at least partially reflective and has bands 22 on the vest (whether reflective partially or not) located thereon. A lower band 24 runs across the lower portion of the back area of the garment. A hem 31 defines the lower extremity of the garment. The middle back area of the garment at the hem 31 is interrupted by a split 25, the split in this example being approximately 150 millimetres long from the hem into the back portion of the garment. A tab 26 is secured in this example by a strip of Velcro ® 27. The tab runs from one side of a panel 28 to the intellectual property office i of N.Z. ;2 8 SEP 2005 RECEIVED ;other side of a panel 29, both panels being in the rear portion of the garment. The tab is secured by stitching or similar at panel 28 across the split 25 and is releasably secured to panel 29 by the Velcro ® strip 27. ;In the situation where an object 30 should snag the garment 21 then the tab 26 will detach at the Velcro ® portion 27 thus allowing the split 25 to open from the hem inwards and the snagging object 30 is then released from the garment freeing the user. ;Once the user has been freed of the object the tab and flaps may be easily reset to close the garment and provide the safety reflective function once again. ;Whilst the safety feature is, in this embodiment, located in the rear panel or area of a safety garment it is envisaged that such a safety system could be employed anywhere upon the garment where there is a likelihood of a part or the garment being snagged by an object or machinery. Such a safety feature could be on the cuffs of a sleeve of a jacket, along a sleeve or about the neck to name but a few. However the most beneficial location identified is about the waist. ;A garment may of course have more than one of these safety features depending upon the likelihood of various areas of the garment being snagged. Other means for this securement portion 7 than Velcro ® may be used such as a dome, other Velcro ® style fastenings, re-adherable adhesive patches, snap fasteners or other such re-securable engagement known in the art. ;The above description is provided for the purposes of exemplification only and it will be understood by a person skilled in this field that modifications and variations may be made without departing from the invention. ;'MTEUECTt/AL>ROPEWOFn(S 2« SEP 2005 *

Claims (44)

1. A break-away safety garment comprising or including of, a front panel and a back panel to define, when assembled, a garment having a top, bottom and side regions to cover a substantial part of the torso of a wearer, at least a torso aperture at or toward said bottom region, a neck aperture at or towards said top region, and an arm aperture on each of said side regions and between said neck and torso aperture wherein said front and back panels are engaged together by low-force selectively disengageable joins between, (a) the torso aperture and each of said arm apertures ("side joins") and (b) said arm apertures and said neck aperture ("top joins"), the hold force for said low force selectively disengageable join to disengage being sufficiently low that catching or snagging of the garment will disengage said join, without any user invention required. so that said front panel may break-away at least in part from said back panel to free a wearer from said garment.

2. A break-away safety garment as claimed in claim 1 wherein said safety garment is a vest.

3. A break-away safety garment as claimed in claims 1 or 2 wherein said garment may be in the form of a jacket with detachable sleeves which are joined by said low-force selectively disengageable join to one of either or both said front panel and back panel.

4. A break-away safety garment as claimed in claims 1 to 3 wherein said garment has, at least on said side joins via adjustment of said low-force selectively disengageable join, the ability to adjust the front panel in relation to the back panel to accommodate differing users.

5. A break-away safety garment as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein said low-force selectively disengageable join or joins is/are defined by at least one or more materials selected from the following: hook and loop fasteners, re-adherable adhesive patches, -15- snap fasteners, dome fasteners, or other such re-securable yet low-force releasable engagements known in the art.

6. A break-away safety garment as claimed in claim 5 wherein said material is a hook and loop fastener.

7. A break-away safety garment as claimed in either of claims 1 to 6 wherein said front panel is divided vertically into two portions which are selectively securable to each other by said low force selectively disengageable join to allow the user to open the garment to do and undo the garment.

8. A break-away safety garment as claimed in either of claims 1 to 6 said front panel is one piece and the garment is slid or pulled over the head of the user.

9. A break-away safety garment as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein said safety garment in whole or in part includes regions of increased or greater reflectivity when compared to that of the remainder of said safety garment reflectivity.

10. A break-away safety garment as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 9 wherein said detachable sleeves join with at least one low force selectively disengageable join to both and/or either said front and back panel(s).

11 A safety garment which can be worn by a user which comprises or includes a garment body and at least one extremity of said garment securable to the remainder of said garment, by a low force releasable securement, such that should said garment extremity become snagged or caught by an object said low force releasable securement will release without user intervention thus freeing said garment extremity (and the garment and thus the user) from said sobject.

12. A safety garment as claimed in claim 11 wherein said safety garment is a vest.

13. A safety garment as claimed in claim 11 wherein said safety garment is a jacket.

14. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 13 wherein said garment may be in the form of a jacket with detachable sleeves which are joined by said low-force releasable securement to one of either or both said front panel and back panel. Inteitectual Office of N.£"^ c 1 FE3 2BCS RECE -16-

15. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 14 wherein said low-force releasable securement is defined by at least one or more materials selected from the following: hook and loop fasteners, re-adherable adhesive patches, snap fasteners, dome fasteners, or other such re-securable yet low-force releasable securements known in the art.

16. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 15 wherein said garment has a front panel which is divided vertically into two portions which are selectively securable to each other by at least one low force releasable securement to allow the user to open the garment to do and undo the garment.

17. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 15 wherein said front panel is one piece and the garment is slid or pulled over the head of the user.

18. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 17 wherein said garment is an upper body garment which includes a hem at the extremity of the upper torso.

19. A safety garment as claimed in claim 18 wherein said hem is located about the lower regions of the upper torso.

20. A safety garment as claimed in claim either of claims 18 or 19 wherein said hem is proximate to the waist of the wearer.

21. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 20 wherein there is a split in said hem of said garment to be at the back of the user of the safety garment.

22. A safety garment as claimed in claim 21 wherein said split is vertical when the safety garment is worn.

23. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 22 wherein said safety garment in whole or part includes regions of increased or greater reflectivity when compared to that of the remainder of said safety garment reflectivity. Office of C I Fc3 2005 e £ I v E D

24. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 21 to 23 wherein said split in the back of the safety garment extends for at least 150mm.

25. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 21 to 24 wherein said split extends from a free edge of said garment.

26. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 25 wherein said low force releasable securement is achieved by a hook and loop connection, such as typified by that sold under the trade name Velcro ®.

27. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 11 to 26 wherein said low force releasable securement is 50mm wide.

28. A safety garment which can be worn by a user, wherein there is at least one region which includes a split and wherein said material adjacent said split is held together over at least part of the length of said split by a low force releasable securement means, wherein, in use should said at least one region become snagged or caught, by an object/said low force releasable securement means will disengage without user intervention to free the user of said object.

29. A safety garment as claimed in claim 28 wherein said safety garment is a vest.

30. A safety garment as claimed in claim 28 wherein said safety garment is a jacket.

31. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 30 wherein said low-force selectively securement means is defined by at least one or more materials selected from the following: Intellectual —- Office of w? hook and loop fasteners, re-adherable adhesive patches, . ^ ^ FEB 2008 snap fasteners, I RECEivfp dome fasteners, or other such re-securable yet low-force releasable securments known in the art.

32. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 31 wherein said garment has a front panel which is divided vertically into two portions which are selectively securable to each other by at least one said low force releasable securement means to allow the user to open the garment to do and undo the garment. -18-

33. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 31 wherein said front panel is one piece and the garment is slid or pulled over the head of the user.

34. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 33 wherein said garment is an upper body garment which includes a hem at the extremity of the upper torso.

35. A safety garment as claimed in claim 34 wherein said hem is located about the lower regions of the upper torso.

36. A safety garment as claimed in either of claims 34 or 35 wherein said hem is proximate to the waist of the wearer.

37. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 36 wherein there is a split in said hem of said garment to be at the back of the user of the garment.

38. A safety garment as claimed in claim 37 wherein said split is vertical when the safety garment is worn.

39. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 38 wherein said safety garment in whole or part includes regions of increased or greater reflectivity when compared to that of the remainder of said safety garment reflectivity.

40. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 37 to 39 wherein said split in the back of the safety garment extends for at least 150mm.

41. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 37 to 40 wherein said split extends from a free edge of said garment.

42. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 41 wherein said low force releasable securement is achieved by a hook and loop connection, such as typified by that sold under the trade name Velcro ®.

43. A safety garment as claimed in claim any one of claims 28 to 42 wherein said low force releasable securement is 50mm wide.

44. A safety garment as described herein with reference to any one or more of the accompanying drawings.