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anti-speeding adverts - effective?

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 9,893 ✭✭✭Canis Lupus


    There should be more ads focused on the rules of the road and etiquette.

    I think that's a good idea.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,194 ✭✭✭foxy farmer


    Ray Darcy did a road safety ad a few years back that could only be aired on radio after the watershed due to it using the F word. I only ever heard it once. The BAI probably ordered that it be removed as it could be offensive.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,624 ✭✭✭Little CuChulainn


    Irish drivers are overwhelmingly poor at driving. I think the most effective ads are those that actually teach people how to drive because many people don't already know what the ad shows them. The thing with speeding is many drivers think that any speed is ok once the conditions are right. They have absolute confidence in their own ability to control the vehicle and assess the surrounding conditions. You'll often hear people in threads like this say something like "speed didn't cause the crash, bad driving did". The only speeding ad I ever though was effective is the one that showed the difference between impacts at different speeds.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,852 ✭✭✭Steve F


    More and more people now are whizzing through ad breaks whilst watching a recording...who sits through ad breaks these days when there are multiple ways of avoiding them?


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,350 ✭✭✭Cortina_MK_IV


    Skyfarm wrote: »
    i often wondered why they never put crashed cars at junctions,roundabouts with a sign/s saying this could be you

    or visiting hospitals with drink drivers and see the effects of weekend drinking,school visits etc,it probably happens but should be more visualise and open
    I was driving in Thailand a few years back and on a stretch of road was an elevated platform with the remains of a crashed car on it. There was no sign or anything but it made you think "f**k sake nobody got out of that in one piece." Irony was cars were speeding by me but I couldn't help thinking would it make a difference if it was done here.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Very good ad from New Zealand a few years back.



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,281 ✭✭✭Valentina


    They should have do real stories with people who've been affected by dangerous driving or speeding. Like that stop smoking advert with the guy Gerry I think his name was?
    I think those would work better if they can get people to do them, i understand it would be very difficult for this people.

    They did them already. They were on around Christmas a few years ago.

    A friend of mine was killed in a road traffic accident and her mother did one of the ads.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,501 ✭✭✭thomasm


    osarusan wrote: »
    Very good ad from New Zealand a few years back.


    That's some advert. Got goose bumps watching that


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,678 ✭✭✭lawlolawl


    We have mixed messages about road safety in this country.

    Only today a judge reduced (on appeal) the sentence of a convicted drunk driver who killed a child.

    What possible grounds could the judiciary have for doing this. He killed the child a bit less than previously thought? He's more sorry about it that he was originally?

    I'd love for the judge to have to sit down in a room across the table from the child's parents and explain exactly why yer man deserves to get out of prison earlier, or at all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 43,017 ✭✭✭✭SEPT 23 1989


    The only thing that slowed me down as a young driver was actually driving too fast losing control and crashing

    never took chances after that,never crashed since


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  • Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    I think these ads are counter productive. People seem to have an assumption that driving slow equals driving safe and it's far from the truth. I see people in cars not paying attention to what they're doing, either they're engrossed in conversation, looking out the side windows, on the phone, or just day dreaming, but because they're doing 70kph on a 100kph road they think their safe, even though they wobble all over the place and brake in all the wrong places.

    We need proper driving lessons in this country. This safe is slow campaign is like a band aid they found in the bin, it's not helping and it's just creating an infection of utter ignorance when it comes to driving. Now we have people out the country that are too afraid to overtake a tractor doing less than 50kph. Get two or three of them type of people in a row and you've got tailbacks just begging for an accident to happen.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,678 ✭✭✭lawlolawl


    Yeah, the "speed kills" thing is a bit of a red herring. Sure, you are more likely to be killed in a collision at a higher speed but speed in itself doesn't cause the collision in the first place.

    It's every second person i meet being on their mobile while driving, the numerous people i meet daily eating while driving, people arguing with their child in the backseat, yer man on his way home after 'only having a few' and/or people just straight up bumbling around in a selfish daze not actually just doing the only thing you are supposed to do when driving which is to ****ing drive.

    The RSA ads should just be white text on a black background saying: "Don't be a moron. Drive your ****ing car properly or else you will die or kill someone else."


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭Howard the Duck


    Valentina wrote: »
    They did them already. They were on around Christmas a few years ago.

    A friend of mine was killed in a road traffic accident and her mother did one of the ads.

    Of course they did, they completely slipped my mind. But thinking back I remember them now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,624 ✭✭✭Little CuChulainn


    They have absolute confidence in their own ability to control the vehicle and assess the surrounding conditions. You'll often hear people in threads like this say something like "speed didn't cause the crash, bad driving did".

    Didn't take long.
    lawlolawl wrote: »
    Yeah, the "speed kills" thing is a bit of a red herring. Sure, you are more likely to be killed in a collision at a higher speed but speed in itself doesn't cause the collision in the first place.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    Didn't take long.
    But what he said is true. Slowing down doesn't make up for being a terrible driver. "Speed kills" is a nonsense statement.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,624 ✭✭✭Little CuChulainn


    ScumLord wrote: »
    But what he said is true. Slowing down doesn't make up for being a terrible driver. "Speed kills" is a nonsense statement.

    Slowing down gives you more time to react to unexpected events and conditions. It also reduced the overall damage caused in the event of a collision. Slowing down also gives others more time to react to your driving.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    Slowing down gives you more time to react to unexpected events and conditions. It also reduced the overall damage caused in the event of a collision. Slowing down also gives others more time to react to your driving.
    Unexpected events can happen at any speed, being aware of your surroundings can prevent "unexpected events" rather than just minimising the damage. This is precisely the problem I have with the Irish approach. Instead of dealing with the actual problem of terrible driving we'll just tell them to slow down so they do less damage when they inevitably have an accident. Makes accident reporting easier for the state too. If he was speeding they can just take that as the reason for the accident and go home without investigating anything else.

    People don't just fall out of the sky when your driving, they don't jump out from behind bushes, there are times and situations when you're likely to encounter people.

    There are a lot of slow drivers that aren't driving slow out of consideration, that's just the speed they want to do. I've encountered plenty of people doing 70kph on a main road and when they get to a town limit they'll continue on at 70kph.

    The majority of Irish drivers don't know enough about driving. Telling them to slow down is the very least the government can do, it also takes any responsibility off them to make sure the roads are auitable for cars.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18 jakethepirate1


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9swS1Vl6Ok

    Videos like these are effective. Draws attention to the fact that even using your phone to change the song can distract you for long enough to crash. And reminds that it's not just our own lives we're putting at risk.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    ScumLord wrote: »
    But what he said is true. Slowing down doesn't make up for being a terrible driver. "Speed kills" is a nonsense statement.

    Say you were a wonderful driver who can handle a car way better than anyone else. You're cruising down the road at 20kph over the marked speed limit because the road conditions are far better than those twats in the RSA think they are, they're just pandering to the slowcoaches. All of a sudden a youngfella on a bike emerges from a gate on a bike, crosses the hard shoulder and stops with his front wheel on the road. There's an oncoming car, you can't swerve around him. You have to use your well serviced, top of the range brakes. You almost get stopped in time. Almost.

    Now, are you going to spend the rest of your life saying to yourself that stupid wee bastard shouldn't have been out on the road, or are you going to say to yourself that if I'd being going a bit easier I wouldn't have killed him.

    Speed does kill. I'm sorry, lots of great drivers don't like hearing that, but it does.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,624 ✭✭✭Little CuChulainn


    ScumLord wrote: »
    Unexpected events can happen at any speed, being aware of your surroundings can prevent "unexpected events" rather than just minimising the damage. This is precisely the problem I have with the Irish approach. Instead of dealing with the actual problem of terrible driving we'll just tell them to slow down so they do less damage when they inevitably have an accident. Makes accident reporting easier for the state too. If he was speeding they can just take that as the reason for the accident and go home without investigating anything else.

    People don't just fall out of the sky when your driving, they don't jump out from behind bushes, there are times and situations when you're likely to encounter people.

    There are a lot of slow drivers that aren't driving slow out of consideration, that's just the speed they want to do. I've encountered plenty of people doing 70kph on a main road and when they get to a town limit they'll continue on at 70kph.

    The majority of Irish drivers don't know enough about driving. Telling them to slow down is the very least the government can do, it also takes any responsibility off them to make sure the roads are auitable for cars.

    Being aware of your surroundings can help you prevent some unexpected events but not all. That's what makes them unexpected. Sometimes people will simply jump out in front of you. Sometimes things will hit your car without warning. Sometimes other drivers will respond in an unexpected manner to hazards. You can't predict or plan for every eventuality and the slower you are going, the more time you have to react to that thing you did not expect.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    Say you were a wonderful driver who can handle a car way better than anyone else. You're cruising down the road at 20kph over the marked speed limit because the road conditions are far better than those twats in the RSA think they are, they're just pandering to the slowcoaches. All of a sudden a youngfella on a bike emerges from a gate on a bike, crosses the hard shoulder and stops with his front wheel on the road. There's an oncoming car, you can't swerve around him. You have to use your well serviced, top of the range brakes. You almost get stopped in time. Almost.
    Why don't you keep an eye on side roads? Being aware of what's ahead includes looking along side roads, slowing down for those possible dangers. There's no need to constantly drive slow for a black spot that's five miles away.

    Unless the lad pops out from a behind a bush on a road that's entirely enclosed and so narrow there's barely room for two cars to pass. In those conditions I'll drive to suit the conditions. On a road with a hard shoulder and little to no obstructions on the side of the road then there's no reason for me to do doing the same speed as that other road.

    Rather than drive the conditions of the road you're just doing a blanket go slow. That's bordering on incompetence in my opinion. And most drivers in this country are borderline incompetent when it comes to understanding car behaviour. Driving slow does not make up for that incompetence.

    A person that's been driving for years should be able to tell you off the top of their head where all the dangers are on their drive home.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,068 ✭✭✭✭jmayo


    Slowing down gives you more time to react to unexpected events and conditions. It also reduced the overall damage caused in the event of a collision. Slowing down also gives others more time to react to your driving.

    So ideally we should be driving around at 50kph ?

    Speed kills is a convenient slogan and often an excuse to use to cover a myriad of issues that our authorities chose to ignore.

    There are a fair few sections of road in this country which up until speed limit changes were 60 odd miles an hour or 100 kph.
    They are now 80 kph and according to you and the authorities someone is being hugely reckless driving at 90kph or 100 kph on the same section of road even though it wasn't reckless a few years ago.
    There hasn't been any disimprovements on or changes of circumstance along the road in question and AFAIK there were never any accidents there.
    I am not talking about narrow bendy twisty roads that shouldn't ever have been anywhere near 100kph, but flat straight sections of wide road.

    Some people seem to think that just because they are within the speed limit they are driving perfectly well and if someone is outside the limit then they are a would be murderer.
    It is never that simple.

    Our road markings are often imbecilic.
    I know sections of flat straight road that now have double white lines down the middle and yet a mile down the road there is a dashed line even though it is humped and between two bends.
    But just because of the road markings it is illegal to overtake on one and not the other, even though only a complete muppet would overtake where it is actual legal to do so.

    Our road markings and speed limits are often lunacy and it looks like it is just some council official, perhaps engineer or planner, who just made arbitrary decisions on a whim?

    If Irish authorities were interested in road safety they would have taken out some accident blackspot bends and junctions as a priority.
    Instead they spend money glorifying the local village and painting fooking stripes on the road at the accident blackspot.
    Oh and the speed limit at the blackspot may now be 60kph or 80kph, but everyone knows it is not enforced because there is nowhere for the speed van to park. :rolleyes:
    It is parked a few miles down the road where there was never an accident.

    If Irish authorities and Gardaí were really interested in road safety they wouldn't be hiding vans and cars along good stretches of road to catch people going a few kms over the limit, but would be highly visible on patrol on dangerous roads and especially at night and weekends.
    But that would cost too much in overtime and they wouldn't be shooting fish in a barrel bringing in revenue.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    ScumLord wrote: »
    And most drivers in this country are borderline incompetent when it comes to understanding car behaviour. Driving slow does not make up for that incompetence.
    If so many drivers are borderline incompetents, wouldn't you prefer them to be borderline incompetents who are driving a bit slower, rather than a bit faster?

    Just because there are other issues involved in bad driving and accidents (issues which you might think are more pressing) doesn't mean that a campaign to reduce speed is a bad thing and that 'Speed Kills' is a nonsense statement.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    osarusan wrote: »
    If so many drivers are borderline incompetents, wouldn't you prefer them to be borderline incompetents who are driving a bit slower, rather than a bit faster?
    No, I'd prefer if they were properly trained. The "speed kills" is a nonsense waste of money that avoids dealing with the real problem of people being terrible at driving. The speed kills campaign does nothing to actually improve driving, it just makes people scared of cars and prone to unhelpful behaviour.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,690 ✭✭✭✭Skylinehead


    osarusan wrote: »
    IJust because there are other issues involved in bad driving and accidents (issues which you might think are more pressing) doesn't mean that a campaign to reduce speed is a bad thing and that 'Speed Kills' is a nonsense statement.

    But the RSA only ever focus on speed as a factor (aside from drink driving, which is its own beast), when the vast majority of accidents are caused by incompetence or not paying attention. The RSA is selling a false message, and people are believing it. They think that if they slow down, they'll be fine, all the while on their phone and not knowing how a roundabout works.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    ScumLord wrote: »
    No, I'd prefer if they were properly trained.
    You are making it an 'either/or' when it isn't.

    Part of proper training would involve knowing what speeds are appropriate for situations anyway - driving too fast or too slow is one kind of incompetence.
    But the RSA only ever focus on speed as a factor (aside from drink driving, which is its own beast), when the vast majority of accidents are caused by incompetence or not paying attention. The RSA is selling a false message, and people are believing it. They think that if they slow down, they'll be fine, all the while on their phone and not knowing how a roundabout works.

    Again, that's the fault of the RSA for not addressing other issues - just because they are not sending out other messages* doesn't mean that the 'Speed Kills' message is wrong in and of itself.


    *although I've seen ones addressing mobile phone usage while driving, and the 'grab a coffee if tired' one.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,190 ✭✭✭Rory28


    But the RSA only ever focus on speed as a factor (aside from drink driving, which is its own beast), when the vast majority of accidents are caused by incompetence or not paying attention. The RSA is selling a false message, and people are believing it. They think that if they slow down, they'll be fine, all the while on their phone and not knowing how a roundabout works.

    the not paying attention is the biggest factor. I have been rear ended twice on my motorbike at red lights by people texting. I mean what the hell people? put your damn phone down!


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,690 ✭✭✭✭Skylinehead


    osarusan wrote: »
    Again, that's the fault of the RSA for not addressing other issues - just because they are not sending out other messages* doesn't mean that the 'Speed Kills' message is wrong in and of itself.


    *although I've seen ones addressing mobile phone usage while driving, and the 'grab a coffee if tired' one.

    The RSA pushing out so many anti-speed messages, which takes away from their budget/airtime to show other equally important issues, is detrimental to the overall goal of reducing accidents, because it doesn't make people aware of the real problems. Going with almost exclusive "speed kills" messages is a lazy and ineffectual method of improving road safety.

    I think I've seen one RSA phone advert ever. Probably saw 3 or 4 speed ones yesterday alone...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,624 ✭✭✭Little CuChulainn


    jmayo wrote: »
    So ideally we should be driving around at 50kph ?

    Speed kills is a convenient slogan and often an excuse to use to cover a myriad of issues that our authorities chose to ignore.

    There are a fair few sections of road in this country which up until speed limit changes were 60 odd miles an hour or 100 kph.
    They are now 80 kph and according to you and the authorities someone is being hugely reckless driving at 90kph or 100 kph on the same section of road even though it wasn't reckless a few years ago.
    There hasn't been any disimprovements on or changes of circumstance along the road in question and AFAIK there were never any accidents there.
    I am not talking about narrow bendy twisty roads that shouldn't ever have been anywhere near 100kph, but flat straight sections of wide road.

    Some people seem to think that just because they are within the speed limit they are driving perfectly well and if someone is outside the limit then they are a would be murderer.
    It is never that simple.

    Our road markings are often imbecilic.
    I know sections of flat straight road that now have double white lines down the middle and yet a mile down the road there is a dashed line even though it is humped and between two bends.
    But just because of the road markings it is illegal to overtake on one and not the other, even though only a complete muppet would overtake where it is actual legal to do so.

    Our road markings and speed limits are often lunacy and it looks like it is just some council official, perhaps engineer or planner, who just made arbitrary decisions on a whim?

    If Irish authorities were interested in road safety they would have taken out some accident blackspot bends and junctions as a priority.
    Instead they spend money glorifying the local village and painting fooking stripes on the road at the accident blackspot.
    Oh and the speed limit at the blackspot may now be 60kph or 80kph, but everyone knows it is not enforced because there is nowhere for the speed van to park. :rolleyes:
    It is parked a few miles down the road where there was never an accident.

    If Irish authorities and Gardaí were really interested in road safety they wouldn't be hiding vans and cars along good stretches of road to catch people going a few kms over the limit, but would be highly visible on patrol on dangerous roads and especially at night and weekends.
    But that would cost too much in overtime and they wouldn't be shooting fish in a barrel bringing in revenue.

    What a rant. You are attributing an awful lot to me that I didn't say. What I said was driving slower is safer and that speed in itself can be dangerous in that it gives you less time to react, gives others less time to react to you and increases the amount of damage done in the case of a collision. If you want to argue any of those points with me that's fine but don't bother quoting me if you just want to complain about the speed limit on your local road.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 16,514 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Going with almost exclusive "speed kills" messages is a lazy and ineffectual method of improving road safety.
    Off the top of my head - mobile phone ad, tiredness ad, driving with child in car ad, wear your seatbeld ad, sharing the road with cyclists ad...

    But again, my point in this thread is that, whether or not the "Speed Kills" message is an effective way of improving road safety or not, it is not a 'nonsense' or a 'nonsense waste of time'.

    Unless you agree with those statements, we are not in disagreement.


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