I had an idea for a road safety campaign, what do you think?

vibe666

I've started to slow down recently. I always drove too fast, even though I'm a decent enough driver (aren't we all:rolleyes:) I figured that one day something 'could' happen if i kept driving to fast and i'd be increasing my chances of doing some serious damage just because of my speed, no matter how good a drive i thought I was.

so i started making a conscious effort to slow down. i made a point of trying to drive economically keeping my revs low, not overtaking etc. to see how many miles I could get out of a tankful just so it would force me not to speed.

then i started noticing every now and again that there were small gravestones and flowers at the side of the road at odd points around and figured they must be from people dying in car accidents. i had seen them before occasionally, but i really started to notice them if you get my meaning.

then I started wondering exactly how many people had died on particular stretches of road I was on and I hit upon an idea.

maybe if people could actually plainly see how many deaths had happened on the roads they were driving it might encourage them to think twice before doing something stupid on the roads.

so what about something like this? it would need to be something instantly recognisable to road users and plainly visible. i'm not talking anything major, just a bamboo pole or something similar with a flag on it, or a big artificial flower or something. a symbol of some sort anyway.

maybe backed up with an ad campaign or TV spot or something in the papers. anything to raise awareness of what they are there for.

you get the message out to anyone who has ever lost a family member or loved one on the roads to get hold of one and you get them to tie on their dead relatives name on one and plant this pole at the side of the road where that person died, a concerted effort to put one of these things in the ground for every single life lost on our roads.

do you think something like that might make a difference if people could really see how many deaths there have been on the roads?

if you could count the number of dead along your commute to work, would you reconsider dangerously overtaking a line of traffic where there is noewhere to pull in, or risking tearing past a lorry on a blind corner just to save a couple of minutes?

Balfa

First of all, congratulations on slowing down. I did the same thing about 24 months ago. I think it's a sort of growing up thing :] I still drive a couple of mph over the speed limit, but it's relaxing to put on cruise control and waft along in the slow lane with everyone else zipping past

I like the awareness idea, especially the bamboo I dunno if you're talking about a community-driven scheme, or a government-driven one. If it's community-driven, you could start it yourself. You'd have to try and contact the family members themselves, which would be awkward, but sure give it a lash

vibe666

i honestly don't know where to start with it other than the idea itself, i've always been more of a talker than a doer.

the other thing I've noticed now that I've started to slow down is how badly a lot of people perform their overtaking moves.

Seth Brundle

Maybe they could put up a sign with a big black circle. The more fatalities, the bigger the circle!
And on the sign it could say "Accident Black Spot"

Sorry for being sarcastic but it won't work! Enforcement or the belief that an enforcement system exists is the only thing that will work!

PCwiggum

kbannon wrote: »

Enforcement or the belief that an enforcement system exists is the only thing that will work!

I tend to agree - we already have some signs up saying "xxx people killed on Co. YYY roads last year", and I don't think they help to change people's driving skills - or lack of them as the case may be.:(

bop1977

as for making people aware of the number of fatal crashes on a road, it was done on the old N4 between kilcock and Enfield. there were white crosses placed along the road for eveyone who was killed on that 6mile strech of road. it even got covered on the 9pm news as it was coming up to a bank holiday weekend.

kbannon wrote: »

Enforcement or the belief that an enforcement system exists is the only thing that will work!

deterant rather than enforcement is a better policy in my opinion. ie if police are highly visable it deters and slows poeple down rather than hiding in bushes/behind road signs/hiding behind stones enforcement currently employed which just fustrates people.

Mr. Presentable

kbannon wrote: »

Maybe they could put up a sign with a big black circle. The more fatalities, the bigger the circle!
And on the sign it could say "Accident Black Spot"

Sorry for being sarcastic but it won't work! Enforcement or the belief that an enforcement system exists is the only thing that will work!

Yeah, most people need first hand experience to cop on. It's the same as cancer etc, you only quit smoking when you get a scare (usuallY)

vibe666

ah well, i thought it might be a good idea, but i guess not.

Seth Brundle

bop1977 wrote: »

as for making people aware of the number of fatal crashes on a road, it was done on the old N4 between kilcock and Enfield. there were white crosses placed along the road for eveyone who was killed on that 6mile strech of road. it even got covered on the 9pm news as it was coming up to a bank holiday weekend.

Did that reduce fatalities? Any time that I drove along it, there was still plenty of dangerous driving.
There was also that idea to place crashed cars along the M1 but this resulted in making the road more dangerous with people gawking at the wrecks and not the road! :rolleyes:

bop1977 wrote: »

deterant rather than enforcement is a better policy in my opinion. ie if police are highly visable it deters and slows poeple down rather than hiding in bushes/behind road signs/hiding behind stones enforcement currently employed which just fustrates people.

Yes I agree - this is what I had meant.

cormie

I had a similar idea, mine was to go a bit mad with the line paint and start doing chalk lines of everywhere people have died. It would make driving a bit morbid though:o

ko4jm6y9iwv2lc

In some regions in France they use black cardboard silhouettes of people along the roadside to signify a dead. The really disturbing ones are the smaller ones to show where a child has died. They are very eerie and they certainly make you think.

bwardrop

Think it is a nice idea, but as has been pointed out, it is just a re-hash of existing efforts.

I used to be a bit of a boy racer - had a VW Polo on TSW Venoms, lowered, tinted windows, big sound system etc etc way back in '98!! Feel old now

Anyways - I also drove like a bit of a fool back then. I got caught speeding that summer and summonsed to court. There was a little old lady called ahead of me on court who was caught doing 68mph in a 60 zone - she got fined £90. I was bricking it - I was clocked at 99mph in a 60 zone. Was sure my license was gone!! I apologized to the court and was given a £110 fine!! Not fair in my opinion... but I wasn't exactly complaining!!

The point is, I immediately re-evaluated my driving habits and sorted out my priorities. Like the OP I started to think what effect my driving could have on others etc.

Getting caught, without having done any serious damage was the best thing that every happened to me - a highly visibly police presence, enforcing the rules is the best way forward I reckon.

I also like the idea proposed in the papers the other day for drink drivers having to undergo alcohol awareness training before they are allowed back on the road - education sessions and working with crash victims etc... something similar could be done with speeders. Even points are not much of a deterrent these days...

vibe666

honestly, i don't know what the answer is, but i know something has to work. unfortunately I think everyone is right in saying that a more visible police pesence is the only thing that will do it.

i read somewhere about a thing in austalia (afaik) where a mobile speed camera unit could be positioned at the side of a road where it was not visible, but that it had a speed detector facing the oncoming traffic and would pop-up whenever anyone was speeding, then drop down again out of sight until the next eejit came along.

unfortunately i think everyone knows that rather than for saving lives the primary use of speed traps is as a source of revenue.

E92

It's not any comfort to anyone who has lost someone in a road accident but we must remember that we have made massive strides in road safety. Back in the 70s we had a similar number of fatalities on the roads but we didn't even have half the number of cars on the roads then. So in the space of 30 odd years, our road safety record has improved tremendously.

As I say though, it's no consolation for anyone who has lost someone recently, but don't be fooled by the RSA etc getting you to think that we are going backwards and things have never been so bad.

port

Congrats on slowing down and you are to be commended on attempting to
encourage others to do so too.We will all benefit from safer roads.However I think the only solution to dangerous driving is to threaten offenders with the loss of their licence e.g. suspended on 8 points rather than 12, and impose much greater fines per offence. Hitting the pocket harder and the threat of losing driving licence and all its implications might make people more aware of their driving e.g. ability to earn a living,being dependant on public transport/others for transport.

Tipsy Mac

As the advert used to say expect the unexpected, the majority of people who die this weekend or last are killed within scooping time and basically nobody can help them as they have brought death upon themselves, if you can't drive within the speed limits on a road you have never travelled on before or are over the drink drive limit you don't deserve to continue driving and perhaps your taking out of the jean pool due to death is for the better of fellow inocent drivers.

vibe666

i think it's definitely going to come down to a visible presence of garda around all the time and a lack of opportunity to drive recklessly and get away with it.

people speed because they know that 99% of the time they will get away with it and thats an acceptable level of risk for a lot of people.

people will only stop doing it when a high risk of being caught means that it's not worth it to them to try it, or when something happens that causes them to grow up and realise the risk they are taking, not just with their own lives but with the lives of every person they come close to on the roads.

E92

vibe666 wrote: »

people speed because they know that 99% of the time they will get away with it and thats an acceptable level of risk for a lot of people

And your point is? Are you saying that because you've decided to slow down and become a "model citizen" that the Guards should now start enforcing speed limits?

Nothing like a conversion on the road to Damascus though?