Texting-while-driving British PSA

[siegen]

A friend posted this on FB and I thought I would share. Hope it hasn't been posted before. It's a very real British public service announcement/advertisement about texting while driving. Not for the faint of heart.

[capriceman]

cant view at work but is that the one where there is like 3 girls driving and drift the lane and like theres 4 car pile up and then there is a baby with dead parents? cause that one is over the top just a little.

[siegen]

cant view at work but is that the one where there is like 3 girls driving and drift the lane and like theres 4 car pile up and then there is a baby with dead parents? cause that one is over the top just a little.

Indeed.

It is done for the shock value for sure. The situation may not be quite that bad in real life (the extra car hitting them would have probably stopped before hitting them, unless they were also on their phone).

I think it gives a nice message and I bet it would make numerous air-headed people stop texting while driving. I wonder how well it would go over if they aired that in the U.S.

I only text at stoplights and I put the phone down if I'm not done and the light changes. No texting while driving for me.

[capriceman]

see I admit That I txt mostly emails but I know my keyboard and just type away and then when its "safe" just glance and send typos be damned! Only if its urgent otherwise I will call but "Paper trail" is very important in the biz world as I'm quickly learning because I have been burned twice by verbal agreements.

[ShadowDog]

Holy crap, this just reminded me of something that really made me upset. In Calgary, while waiting at a set of lights to cross traffic there was a city bus to my left in the left-turn lane. When the green-turning arrow illuminated I eventually heard a horn honk from somewhere behind us and noticed the bus wasn't moving. When I looked over at the driver, the bitch was hunched over her steering wheel with a Blackberry-sized cell device in her hands with a big smile on her face. She looked up, but instead of putting the phone down, she continued with it in her hand whilst spinning the steering wheel to start her turn. I don't think she was looking at it after that, but who the hell knows?!

About the only thing that made me feel a bit better was that the bus was 'off duty' at the time, so no passengers. Still, would you like to be the one slammed by a 12 ton vehicle? I damn-near reported #5080 at the time; however, I didn't think it was my battle to fight. Still, I feel a little guilty about not calling.

[Croc]

I saw that commercial, and it was so over-the-top that I am SURE every 9-year-old could spot it. Just like anti-drug ads, so ridiculous they actually promote the opposite of their content.

[Intrepidation]

Over the top indeed, but its more than possible that an airhead texting and not paying attention would drift into the other lane and hit another car. The multiple fatalities are where it gets over the top, but it certainly gets the point across.

I never text while driving, and rarely use my phone while driving.

[FAPTurbo]

I saw that commercial, and it was so over-the-top that I am SURE every 9-year-old could spot it. Just like anti-drug ads, so ridiculous they actually promote the opposite of their content.

I was under the impression drug use amongst teens has been sliding over the past few years? Same goes for drunk driving. Although, those have had advertisement campaigns that don't just focus on gore.

[Croc]

I was under the impression drug use amongst teens has been sliding over the past few years? Same goes for drunk driving. Although, those have had advertisement campaigns that don't just focus on gore.

I don't really believe in the drug use studies. I remember taking the "confidential" questionaire back in high school, and I lied on it, as did many other of my peers. We weren't going to admit to anything that, even without being traced to our names, would statistically get back to our high school, leading to a crackdown.

I know this: marijuana is as popular as ever, especially for college freshmen, and cocaine use is much higher than it used to be. I also know that adderall and other "concentration" drugs are routinely abused, and people still sell/share painkillers after having their wisdom teeth out.

[§carlet §wordfish]

Two years ago, Brandi Terry was a 17-year-old high school junior. She was driving one day to visit her grandfather in northern Utah.

"I woke up to a bright light — I could barely open my eyes — and paramedics. This man was saying 'Brandi, Brandi,' and I just started crying. I didn't know what had happened," she says.

Terry had run a red light. Police checked her phone and discovered she had sent a text within seconds of the accident. Terry shattered her right ankle and broke her upper right arm in half. She couldn't walk for six months and had an agonizing recovery. She got better, got another car and tried to stop texting.

"I tried really, really hard not to," Terry says. "Then it got to the point where I would do it only once every 5 minutes. I would rarely do it — it got to the point where when I was alone in the car, I would do it," she says. "I don't know — it's just so addicting, I just can't put it down."

Within a year of her first accident, Terry did it again — she slammed into the back of semi while she was texting. This time, she escaped injury.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...oryId=113132868

[ShadowDog]

While so many consider it over the top, I look at it this way. If texting while driving is considered worse than drunk driving, and the fatality rate for accidents related to drunk driving is high, you can bet that the potential for death in a texting accident is up there too. At the very least, this stupid action is sure to raise the insurance rates, especially for inexperienced drivers. Not that this matters much since mommy and daddy will end up putting the car in their own name just to save the dough.

[FAPTurbo]

Wow that Brandi chick is dumb. Seriously, two accidents from texting? I hope her parents are keeping her off the road, or she turns the cell phone off and throws it in the trunk every time she drives.

[SAmadei]

I wonder where web surfing while driving ranks... nothing more ironic than like using platewire.com behind the wheel.

[Drew Dowdell]

I never txt while driving.... I only surf C&G on my blackberry.

[FAPTurbo]

I wonder where web surfing while driving ranks... nothing more ironic than like using platewire.com behind the wheel.

If Eddie Griffin is any indication, drivers surfing mobile internet porn will kill us all.

[Robert Hall]

Pretty stupid thing to do any way you look at it. Besides, it takes two hands for me to text, can't really drive while doing that. I make/take calls (hands free) while driving on occasion..

I used to read my email while driving (sitting at lights) years ago when I had a wireless Palm..reading email using a stylus is a bit awkward while driving.

[Blake Noble]

The part where the car gets t-boned is over the top.

Is it bad that I sort of laughed at that? I mean, I've seen much worse around the 'net than this.