Explicit, but maybe effective
Posted: September 14, 2009 at 4:32 a.m.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The video is shocking and makes your heart race: A girl distracted from driving by texting on her cell phone crossesthe center line and runs head-on into an oncoming car, then is rammed by another car. The video takes you inside her car, and with computer animation shows her friends' heads crashing into the windshield and windows, then shows the fatal, gory aftermath.
It's disturbing. It's meant to be.
The video, produced by a police department in North Carolina, was created for use in schools there. But an excerpt got posted on YouTube, and now it has gone viral, with more than 4 million viewings.
It's a controversial approach.
But we applaud it as one more tool in the toolbox for convincing teens, and all of us, of the dangers of texting while driving. Some safety advocates question whether graphic scenes are the best technique.
That shouldn't be the only approach - humor, reason, technology, laws and emotion are others - but if this video strikes fear in the heart of even one person, and we're sure it has, it might save lives.
There's no debate about the extreme dangers of texting while driving. A Virginia Tech study confirmed that this summer. Truckers' risk of a wreck was 23 times higher than when not texting, researchers found.
Drivers typically spent five seconds looking at their electronic device in the moments before a crash - an eternity at any speed. Numerous studies have shown that drivers know it's dangerous, but do it anyway.
Legislation helps, but ultimately each driver has to make his own choice. That's why the Welsh video might pay off.
Drivers know it's dangerous but need something more to quit. The images from this video linger, and make you think twice.
- The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
Opinion, Pages 4 on 09/14/2009
(Advertisement)
« Previous Story
Times Editorial: Here we are
Now that it's time for voters to make the final decision about the future of Fayetteville High School, there is a healthy debate going on about whether the project is the r... Read »
Next Story »
Guest Commentary Will the military make truth...
Afghanistan is about as removed as one could imagine from being at the center of a First Amendment controversy. Read »
Comments
To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Registration is required to make comments. Click here to LOGIN.
You can register for FREE to post comments and receive alerts.