Safe Driving Campaign Says Kill Your Speed Or Live With IT!

A harrowing new £3.2m THINK! campaign to highlight the life-wrecking consequences of speeding for drivers as well as victims was launched today by Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick. 

The campaign’s stark message is that if you kill someone while speeding you will be tormented by it forever. In the new television advert a driver is haunted by images of the child he has killed - seeing his body in the bathroom mirror, through the window of a bus and when in the park with his son.

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 North West to kill their speed before it’s too late.”

In the North West, many drivers who stray only a few miles per hour over the speed limit are given the option of speed awareness courses, where they learn the potentially dire consequences of speeding – making them better drivers and avoiding penalty points on their licence.

Marie Patrick, a nursing home activities organiser from Liverpool, did one such course in Knowsley, along with her son who was caught speeding on a separate occasion. After initially having reservations about attending, Mrs Patrick found that she learned a lot and picked up useful safe-driving tips – such as driving in third gear when on a 30mph road, to avoid creeping up over the limit.

She said: “It was a very good course and we both learned a lot. It made us both much more aware.

“I’ve never been described as a speed fiend but just keeping in third gear in a built-up area stops you driving over 30mph.”

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.

Source: Dept of Transport

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