Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Texting While Driving - Proceed With Caution

In August 2009, the Gwent Police Department of South Wales released a graphic PSA in response to the increasing amount of accidents caused by texting-while-driving. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the idea of releasing the PSA in the United States. In order to watch the video via YouTube, viewers are required to sign-in and confirm that they are over eighteen years of age.

I first stumbled upon this video while I was playing on Facebook. This video popped up on my news feed, with a comment above the link stating, “OMG-watch with caution.” Without much regard to the comment, I clicked play. Let’s just say I wished I prepared myself for what I was about to watch. The video is extremely graphic. By the end of it was I was floored.

The video is of two girls riding as passengers to the third girl who is driving. All are engaged in a text when the driver swerves into the opposite lane and collides with another vehicle. The camera is positioned in the car to show the full impact. After the car stops, another car comes and hits the girl’s vehicle. I can barely acknowledge this video without getting the chills. I’m not one for violence, so this was pretty hard for me to watch. Talk about using scare tactics!

With all this said and all other opinions aside, I do feel that it is important for anyone holding a drivers license to watch this video. As graphic as it may be, there are real stories behind this PSA. I have passed this video on to my friends in hopes that they will think twice before texting while driving.


WARNING: Graphic Content!

1 comment:

Aneta said...

I also wanted to add that to me it was more about what the PSA was promoting. I had a discussion with someone who thinks that they can drive and text perfectly fine, but it is about all the other distractions. You don't know who is doing what in their cars these days that distract them. I liked this PSA because car accidents aren't fun, minor, they are life changing and taking experiences. Even though they weren't wearing seatbelts, not many people do anyways.