Thursday 8 March 2012

Road - Lighting up time

Motoring journalists are bombarded on a daily basis with Press Releases from motor and accessory manufacturers all extolling amazing levels of ingenuity, innovative design and practical functionality. That means a regular trawl through the email in-box weeding out those which don’t have any relevance to a particular readership followed by a more intense perusal of what's left.

The trouble is, there is so much stuff being emailed, that the job is getting bigger by the month, and all journalists perfect their own technique of listing the most important stuff which might just make the space they have available to fill.

For instance, I have perfected a rather prejudiced and jaundiced approach (based on years of experience) to prioritise press releases. Any that use the word ‘solutions’ goes straight to the bottom of the in-pile. You know the thing, ‘mapping solutions’ which means a Sat Nav, or ‘transport solutions’ which means a vehicle, or ‘nationwide vehicle sourcing and finance solutions’ which is a usually a leasing/rental company.

But there is always something that takes a trick, and this RAC Personal HazardLight tickled my fancy. Having been caught late one night with a puncture in horrible weather and having to dodge passing (too close!) traffic while changing the wheel, I could have used one of these.

The trick is in the shape. It’s round, so whichever way you lay it down it will catch the eye of any oncoming driver and therefore is much easier to line up than a flashing torch. The unit has 16 superbright LEDS giving 360 degrees coverage with a range of up to 300m by day and 1000 metres by night.

There are 3 different colours. Yellow with orange LED; Orange with red LED; and Blue with blue LED.  It's totally waterproof and will even float! It’s also crushproof and magnetic so it can be fixed to the boot, bonnet or roof.

An optional accessory pack (£10) contains 5 different shaped carabiners which can be used to clip the light to other objects such as backpacks, bicycles or even lost weans!

The light can be rechargeable, mains/car charger included (£29.99) or replaceable battery(£25.00). 


Yes it’s a tad expensive, but it could be a life saver!

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