Documentary to shock as victims and families re-live car accidents

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/792992?view=Eircomnet

Documentary to shock as victims and families re-live car accidents
From:The Irish Independent
Monday, 26th May, 2003
Treacy Hogan

THE most shocking ever television expose of the human cost of Ireland's road carnage should be made compulsory viewing as it would save lives , the National Safety Council said yesterday.

Filmed over six months, Crash is a chilling portrait of the catastrophic impact of road accidents on the lives of ordinary people across the country. The "profoundly disturbing" programme is being screened tomorrow night on RTE 1's True Lives series.

Road safety experts who have previewed the programme said yesterday it is "the most shocking and deeply moving account ever screened of the rarely seen human cost of the country's crash culture".

It is a harrowing account of the tragic consequences of bad driving behavior, which Irish people now seem to accept as part of everyday life.

Crash presents the tragic ripple effect of a single incident, a two car crash on the Cork to Bandon road in September 2001 in which six young people died. The surviving driver of one car tells how he lay trapped in the wreckage, calling out to try and see if his passengers were still alive. There are harrowing scenes as the affected families tell of their loss.

From the wards of the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, there are interviews with survivors of other crashes whose lives have been changed forever.

There is no narration during the programme as families, victims, emergency workers and others who deal with the horrors of car accidents on a daily basis tell their stories.

Some 790 people have died on our roads over the last two years. Over 20,000 were injured. Bad driving was responsible for the vast majority of these accidents. After initial optimism that penalty points had slowed down Ireland's reckless drivers, the rising numbers of deaths in recent weeks has prompted intense concern that there is insufficient enforcement by gardai. Fatalities this month alone look as if they will exceed those for May of last year.

Brian Farrell, National Safety Council spokesman, said yesterday the council believed that everyone should watch it. "It should be compulsory viewing for everyone particularly car drivers. We believe that after watching this programme people will slow down and change their behaviour. It is is that powerful."

"As a nation we have become slightly de-sensitised to road carnage. This documentary shows as starkly as possible what is going on, he said.

Paula Williams, executive producer with Mint Productions which made the programme said: "It is not comfortable viewing. People will see bodies in the morgue. The interviews with the survivors and the families of victims are profoundly moving. Forget about viewing figures. If this programme saves just one life or prevents a serious injury it will have been worthwhile."

True Lives - Crash will be screened on RTE 1 tomorrow at 10.10pm.

commuterised

I watched that doc last night.
Very hard hitting.

I think it should be shown in schools to 5th and 6th year students especially boys. Maybe it might make them realise what can and will happen if they continue to drive the way they do.