Chilling new TV campiagn warns drivers to kill their speed
A harrowing new £3.2m THINK! campaign to highlight the life-wrecking consequences of speeding for drivers as well as victims was launched today by Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick.
The campaign’s stark message is that if you kill someone while speeding you will be tormented by it forever. In the new television advert a driver is haunted by images of the child he has killed – seeing his body in the bathroom mirror, through the window of a bus and when in the park with his son.
Jim Fitzpatrick said:
“Speed kills. More than 700 people were killed in 2007 in accidents where someone was driving too fast – that’s two people every day of the year who didn’t go home to their families.
“The last THINK! campaign on speeding highlighted the shocking fact that if you hit a child at 30mph there’s an 80% chance they will live but if you hit them at 40mph there’s an 80% chance they will die. It’s 30 for a reason.
“We now want motorists to consider the consequences of speeding for them: what is life like for the driver who kills because they are in a rush to get home and how does that split second decision affect the rest of their life? I hope this powerful new campaign will get drivers in Essex to kill their speed before it’s too late.”
The new THINK! campaign – ‘Kill your speed, or live with it’ – includes TV, radio, cinema and online advertising.
The THINK! television advert was screened to attendees on a Speed Awareness Course in Wickford, Essex. The Speed Awareness course is a key measure in effectively tackling speeding. It has recently been introduced in Essex to help educate rather than prosecute drivers who have exceeded the speed limit.
Figures released by the Department for Transport show that in the East of England there were 154 people killed or seriously injured on 30mph roads where speed was reported as a contributory factor in personal injury road accidents in 2007.
Councillor Norman Hume, Chairman of the Essex Casualty Reduction Board said:
“It is unacceptable to speed. The Speed Awareness Course reminds drivers of the dangers, and we hope it will make them think about whether they could live with themselves if they injured or killed someone else while speeding.”
The radio adverts – ‘Always There’ – feature a chilling message from ‘beyond the grave’. Children’s voices describe what life is like for the driver who killed them while speeding several years ago. The drivers cannot sleep, watch a football match or spend time with their own children without thinking of the dead child.
The ‘Kill your speed, or live with it’ campaign is just one of the Government’s initiatives to further cut the number of people killed or injured on Britain’s roads. As well as other THINK! campaigns, including the new ‘Tales of the Road’ child road safety campaign, the Department for Transport is currently consulting on a range of proposals to improve road safety including increasing the penalties for those who commit the most serious speeding offences.
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2 Comments
I really think the advert showing a ‘dead’ child is both sick and unthinking!
I have never killed anybody (thankfully) whilst driving BUT have had nightmares after veiwing this ad.
I hate to think what nightmares this ad could cause to any parents who have lost a child to a road traffic accident who didnt have a mental image of their dead child lying in the road..but do now, thanks to non thinking ‘ad gurus’.
Does anybody have a link I can use to complain about this advert?
Matt Davies
February 6, 2009, 10:17 pm.
Hi Matt
To complain about an advert, probably the best course of action is to visit the Advertising Standards Aurothity website:
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/
I hope that helps
Faye Sunderland
February 9, 2009, 9:18 am.
