Somewhere out there a marketing guru
must be thrilled with the irony of promoting road safety by putting it in jeopardy. The situation is bemusing as the recently launched Road Safety campaign encourages you to ignore distractions and focus on driving, except for when it comes to road safety ads.
Road safety is an important initiative, however, much like the ad campaign, sometimes it can be taken a bit too far. There has been a lot of talk of means to improve road safety on the island and in contributing one voice, this dormant volcano sometimes referred to as a blog shall show some signs of life.
Some ideas, such as graduated licensing and the proposed curfew for young drivers, are good. Others, such as this guerilla marketing campaign, are not so good, as is evidenced by today's article in the Royal Gazette.
"Police spokesman Dwayne Caines confirmed there was a four-car fender bender this morning on Kinley Field near one of the accident displays.
Promoting road safety shouldn't be about causing accidents.
Oh, come now Dennis. What next? A ban on short skirts? They certainly distract some drivers.
If you can't pay attention, you'll have an accident. It doesn't matter if it's a staged horror show, or Johnny Barnes that takes your eyes off the road. If you take your eyes off the road, YOU did it. It is not the fault of the thing you were looking at.
I actually feel that these scenes might have a positive result. Far too often, people think of themselves as invulnerable. Seeing that that is not always the case might help to improve some people's behaviour. I know that witnessing a fatal accident when I was younger put me off of the pack racing scene, and made me slow down in general.
Posted by: Renaissance Man | April 24, 2008 at 08:53 PM