what happened to the girl in the text and drive clip
Driven to Lark
Doubts Well-nigh Scare Tactics on Drivers Who Text
American safety advocates, concerned about the dangers of texting while driving, take enjoyed a boost from an unlikely source: the chief lawman of Gwent, a small county in southeast Wales.
The Gwent Police Section produced a picture show on the subject to be shown in Welsh schools this autumn. And with zero promotion by the police force, a gory, explicit four-infinitesimal excerpt from the film went viral and has been viewed more four million times on YouTube and other sites.
In the video, a immature commuter texts as she drives ii friends forth a 2-lane road. Distracted, she lets the machine drift into oncoming traffic, slams into a auto and watches another motorcar crash into her vehicle, killing her friends.
It is the stuff of American worst-case driver-education films, but the Welsh video goes further, with shut-ups of a girl's caput slamming confronting a car window, and the blank stare of a infant in one of the cars.
Some American organizations are making their own ads to publicize the growing awareness that texting and driving is dangerous, just most avoid such trigger-happy imagery. Though the Welsh video has clearly struck a chord, some rubber advocates maintain that blood and gore is not the best way to finish drivers from doing something that is legal in almost states.
The Welsh advert, and the ones that American groups are making, are giving new life to a longstanding debate in public health circles, where campaigns accept tried threats, emotional pleas or implied social pressure to urge people — often unsuccessfully — to quit smoking, be vaccinated, end using drugs or wear seat belts.
In Gwent, the police department wanted to update its previous rubber film, on joyriding. "We asked young people what was the thing that they thought was now the most dangerous for their age group, and they said mobile phones and, in particular, texting," said Mick Giannasi, master lawman of Gwent law.
Using a mitt-held telephone while driving is illegal in Wales and the residue of Uk.
With a small budget, about $20,000, the department put together a xxx-infinitesimal film that included the crash scene.
"Young people were telling us, 'It needs to be more than shocking, it needs to be more vehement, it needs to exist more truthful,' " said Peter Watkins-Hughes, the film's director.
Its popularity has startled the filmmakers, who posted the excerpt on YouTube just to show a colleague. Merely they said they were thrilled that the ad was getting attention.
"The reality is, if we desire our message, which is a lifesaving message, to cutting through, we take to prefer certain strategies," Mr. Watkins-Hughes said. "In this one, nosotros've gone for grim reality."
And while it has drawn attention, others doubt whether it volition modify annihilation.
"When you wait at something like cellphone utilize or texting, virtually people already know these behaviors are not safe, merely they exercise them anyway," said Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president for enquiry at the Insurance Plant for Highway Safety, a nonprofit research group financed by auto insurers. "But the challenge in highway safety is that we do unsafe things day after mean solar day and don't end up in a crash, and and then I think, over time, people get back to their everyday behaviors."
Many experts fence that violent, threatening ads need additional elements to be effective.
Richard Tay, a route condom researcher at the Schulich School of Technology at the University of Calgary, said the Welsh advertizing's portrayal of the other people being killed in the accident was smart.
"The guilt model does work fairly well in young people," he said.
But a violent advertisement must also instruct people on how to change their behavior, otherwise, "to erase the fear quickly, you say, 'That's not me,' " Professor Tay said. And merely because an advert is popular does not mean that viewers will change their driving behavior, he said. 1 reason that violent ads may not work as well is that teenagers are already well aware that some activities are dangerous, said Westward. Kip Viscusi, who has studied hazard for decades and is a professor at Vanderbilt Academy.
That is why he is skeptical about the effectiveness of the ad.
"It goes dorsum to, 'What are you trying to accomplish with the warning — are yous trying to inform people, or are you lot treating them like lower beings that take to be shocked into the mode you lot want them to behave?' " he said.
"I don't think you need to bear witness the machine crash," he added. "You bear witness what happens in terms of what the commuter's looking at, how they're missing a lot of what'south going on on the road when they're focusing on their BlackBerry or iPhone."
He said the popularity of the video excerpt was most probable due to its graphic nature. "The shock aspect ultimately may obscure the texting risk bulletin," he said.
The current texting-while-driving campaigns in the United states of america take emotional or funny approaches, and avoid the violence of the movie from Wales. In a message from the National Condom Quango that began running online in June, promoted by billboards nationwide, a crash is described, but for emotional effect.
"Our youngest son, Joe, who was 12 years old at the time, was trapped in the car," David Teater, who is now an executive at the National Safety Council, says in the video. "He never regained consciousness. And we establish out that a young lady had run a red light while she was distracted on a cellphone."
The Advert Council, which coordinates the industry's pro bono efforts, takes a lighter tack. It has been running a spot since early this year that approaches the subject with humour, showing the comic actor Fred Willard threatening a teenage driver that he will "haunt you silly" if he does non pay attention and stop texting.
It is role of a larger campaign about teenagers and reckless driving, and sense of humour simply works better with that group, said Peggy Conlon, the Ad Council'south chief executive. That was a lesson the council learned after running the famous, and much-mocked, antidrug campaign "Just say no."
"Adults idea information technology was really wonderful, but kids kind of felt like they were existence scolded," said Ms. Conlon, who said the group now avoids finger-wagging ads with teenagers.
Notwithstanding, many advocates say they believe that campaigns are not a substitute for more straight action. Several are calling for aid from the cellphone manufacture.
Cheryl Healton, chief executive of the American Legacy Foundation, a group that specializes in antismoking efforts, suggested that cellphones could show a prompt on their phones, reminding people not to text and drive.
Kelly Grand. Browning, executive managing director of the advocacy grouping Impact Teen Drivers in California, has suggested an idea, Star 65 to Stay Alive, to AT&T, in which the visitor could fix up a lawmaking of *65 to disable incoming calls and texts, and send automated response messages like, "I'm driving right now. I'll get back to y'all when I'm off the road."
"Actually, technology is the best manner we can address it," Mr. Teater, the National Safety Quango executive, said. "It's going to be hard for people to only say no. They're going to need help."
Public safety advocates say that another element is necessary to decrease on-the-road texting: laws.
"What we accept establish once more and again in dissimilar areas of highway safety is that education alone may take a short-term effect, simply in the long run, people need to believe there are going to be legal consequences attached to their behavior," Ms. McCartt of the insurance constitute said, citing seat belt and drunken-driving programs. "What actually gets people to change their behaviors is strong laws, strongly enforced."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/technology/01distracted.html
0 Response to "what happened to the girl in the text and drive clip"
Post a Comment