THINK! before you speed
A harrowing new THINK! Campaign has been launched, highlighting the consequences of speeding drivers and their victims.
The new £3.5 million campaign launched by Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick holds the stark message that if you kill someone whilst speeding you will be tormented forever.
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 the South West to kill their speed before it’s too late.”
Alan Hale, South West spokesman for the Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association said: “Everyone who speeds seems to think it is acceptable, until it all goes wrong and then it is all too late. Someone is now dead and all too often a child.
“In 2007,120 people were killed or seriously injured in the South West as a result of speeding. Many of those accidents are caused by everyday motorists who drive at 40 in a 30 mile per hour limit and risk ruining a life and living with the guilt.
“All drivers need to think about the speed limit and to slow down if they are above it. Slowing down by just a few miles an hour can be the difference between life and death.”
The new THINK! campaign – ‘Kill your speed, or live with it’ – includes TV, radio, cinema and online advertising.
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.