Video drives home road safety message to young
Last updated at 15:41, Monday, 15 February 2010
TECHNOLOGICALLY savvy teens are used to using websites such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter as their main method of communication. In a bid to capitalise on the popularity of social networking, a road safety campaign has launched a hard-hitting video aimed at young drivers.
AMY FENTON reports
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POLITICIANS, police officers and teachers are all embracing new media in a bid to reach out to young people.
Cumbria is no exception. A quick browse on Facebook and Twitter reveals Cumbria police, Barrow Borough Council and, of course, the Evening Mail are all embracing the potential to reach thousands of young people across the county.
Educational videos aimed at reducing the number of road collisions have been shown to youngsters for years, through schools and youth groups. But Cumbria Road Safety Partnership has gone one step further by launching a viral video over the internet. The video was produced by CN Group, publisher of the Evening Mail, and filmed in Barrow town centre by Evening Mail multimedia staff Katie Robinson, Joe Riley and Sheenah Alcock.
In the film, revellers are asked during a night out: “What makes a good night out?”
Friends, live music and cheap drinks are among some of the responses. Images of a busy night on the town flicker across the screen – young people laughing, joking and hugging each other.
The video then dramatically cuts to a car crash scene: a young girl staggers out of the mangled car in her stilettos, balancing herself with her blood-smeared hands.
As the camera fades away from a shot of the driver, with blood pouring from his nose and ear, the girl says: “A good night out? Getting home alive.”
The message? Don’t wreck a good night out.
Project manager, and head of digital content at CN Group, Nick Turner, said the aim of the video is to encourage young drivers to think about safety.
He said: “We put together a focus group in Barrow to get some ideas from young people about what they thought the video should be about. We went out on the streets and asked people what they think is a good night out in Barrow. The message is that you have to think about how you are going to get home safely.
“The aim of the video is to encourage drivers and young people to think about how many good nights out in Cumbria end in tragedy.”
The focus group highlighted the issues of drink-driving and speeding, but also said being distracted by friends in the back of a car can just as easily lead to an accident.
Mr Turner said: “There’s more to think about than speeding and drinking, it’s meant to be a fun video with a serious message. Everyone who took part enjoyed shooting the video, and we’ll also be putting together some other versions which will include out-takes from when we interviewed people in Barrow.”
The Cumbria Road Safety Partnership believes the video will engage drivers and show the harrowing effect collisions can have on young lives. A spokesman for the partnership said: “One of our key roles is to influence driver behaviour, and young people are a vital audience for us.
“That's partly because they are at high risk of being involved in an accident, and partly because they aren't yet set in their ways when it comes to driving.
“We chose to use the internet and this viral video and social media led approach, because these are the media that young people use most.
“And by adopting a viral strategy – where people pass content on to each other – our hard-hitting safety message is seen as coming from another young person, rather than a distant authority figure.”
Roger Mallett is responsible for traffic management and road safety issues in South Cumbria. After viewing the video, he said: “This video has an unexpected hard-hitting ending that may make people think about the results of a road crash and Cumbria police welcomes and supports anything that helps with road safety.”
Comments about the video can be posted on Youtube. CN Group is currently working alongside other agencies to produce commercial and educational videos. For more information email pictures@nwemail.co.uk.
First published at 12:57, Thursday, 28 January 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Have your say
The people behind this haven't a clue what viral means in internet terms do they?
If it is really bad or funny in places where it isn't meant to be funny it might go viral but the message it contains will be lost in laughter.To 'fix' bad driving in young people make the test harder to pass and ensure the examiners are better qualified to teach.Something goes 'viral' when people find something interesting and pass it on to friends who in turn pass it on to their friends.
Assuming any teenager watches this video they are highly unlikely to pass it onto any of their friends because it is about 'safety' and is meant to 'educate' so it won't go viral.
Create a bronze pass, a silver pass and a gold pass each one harder to achieve than the preceeding one.
Link the better standard of driving with lower insurance premiums and the problem of bad youth driving will automatically be reduced.This both easy and cheap to implement but this government doesn't do easy and cheap solutions to anything.
Posted by James P on 16 February 2010 at 12:19