A new road safety drive in the UK, National Road Victim Month, is intended to cut casualties. This is being launched with harrowing films that share the accounts of six crash victims and bereaved family members, whose lives have been torn apart by speeding drivers.
Funded by the Department for Transport, the videos were produced by RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, to challenge society’s acceptance of speeding and to strengthen crash victims’ voices.
Excessive and inappropriate speed is a major contributory factor in road collisions. Yet many road users do not think twice before exceeding the limit or driving too fast for the conditions.
The films feature:
Lucy Harrison, from Redditch – Her brother Peter Price, was killed by a speeding hit and run driver, travelling at 93mph: https://youtu.be/uEt5fus78LE
Harriet Barnsley, from Birmingham - She suffered life-changing injuries and her best friend, Rebecca McManus, was killed by a speeding driver, travelling over 100mph: https://youtu.be/QVXfwx6uBeA
Tesse Akpeki, from Wembley – Her brother Tony was killed by a speeding hit and run driver: https://youtu.be/YNPrRUDH5aE
Steve Booth, from Leicester - His wife Annette was killed by a speeding driver: https://youtu.be/oxMknJomHYo
Mandy Garner, from Essex – Her daughter Anisha was killed by a speeding hit and run driver, travelling at more than 60mph in a 30mph zone: https://youtu.be/fMEPlPZ-TWA
Mandy Gayle, from Wolverhampton – Her father, Hopton, was killed by a speeding hit and run driver: https://youtu.be/mfchKb8zlus
Nick Simmons, CEO of RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, said: “Speeding shatters lives, destroys families and communities live in fear of it – so why don’t we see speeding as the antisocial epidemic that it is?
“We hope by sharing the stories of some of our members, whose lives have been torn apart by speeding drivers, who have courageously told their stories, that people will think twice before putting their foot down. Speeding is selfish, unfair and it puts so many lives at risk.”
Research shows that when an audience becomes engaged in a narrative story, they become both emotionally and cognitively involved, and they are less likely to generate counterarguments against the persuasive message.*
RoadPeace has released ground-breaking new connected vehicle data, which revealed the police force areas where drivers exceed the speed limit more excessively than others: https://www.roadpeace.org/pioneering-data-reveals-best-and-worst-areas-in-uk-for-speeding/
*Green and Brock (2000)
