Thursday 14th October 2004

Emotion doesn't help road safety, says campaign

Safe Speed says a cold-hearted and scientific approach is best

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In response to today's launch of a report entitled: "Stop, Look and Listen: children talk about traffic" by Transport 2000 and Barnardos, Safe Speed says emotional appeals won't save lives on the roads. Instead, a cold hearted, rational and, above all, scientific approach to road safety is required.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign says, "It's all about the right information. If we base our approach to road safety on the opinions of children we won't be effective and more will die. Instead we need to look at the vital psychological factors that underlie our system of road safety - it is after all the best in the world. It's facts, facts, facts that we need. Nothing less will do."

Smith continues, "There's little enough true fact in the road safety debate as it is. When a childrens' charity, and a pressure group funded by public transport operators comes along with puff like this we should be ignoring it in spades.

"There's nothing I'd like more than to see road deaths fall, but cheap emotional appeals from vested interests are never going to help deliver improvement. Arguments like those offered by Transport 2000 have already set UK road safety back by a decade. Let's have no more of it.

"It's good and it's human that children are afraid of traffic. Traffic is dangerous and fear is a perfectly correct natural reaction that actually keeps us safe. We should never hope for our roads to become playgrounds."

Recent DfT research tells us that just 131 children aged 14 and under died on our roads in 2003.[1] Total child pedestrian deaths (aged 0 to 15 this time) were just 74 [2].

There were 172 child deaths (aged 0 to 14) from accidents other than road accidents in 2003. [1]

Just 22 child pedestrians under the age of 8 died in 2003, and 39 under the age of 12. [2]

Every one is a tragedy and every one should be prevented, but it simply isn't carnage out there, says Smith, adding that we have a fine road safety system and we have to work intelligently to improve it.

More here.

[tuscan_thunder]

Smith is bang on again.

Cars are dangerous, cars can kill. fact.

cars should be taught to be petrified of cars, then we might see a drop in child road casualties. kids shouldn't play on roads, in the same way that cars don't drive on playgrounds.

barnardos should be ashamed of themselves, especially teaming up with Transport 2000 who, on their website, have links to such charming websites as 'top tips for wrecking road-building.'

no good can come of barnardos campaign.

[v8thunder]

The problem here is that the anti-car groups see the whole issue as a war, and the concept of the emotional campaign is not something the pro-car lobby can use (what emotions are involved with the exception of showing an E-Type and saying 'would you ban this?'). IMO the sooner these campaigns are regulated as strongly as adverts for Mitsubishi Evos, the better.

>> Edited by v8thunder on Thursday 14th October 12:38

[Seedy Sanchez]

If they are factually incorrect or misrepresent the issue then complain to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority).




>> Edited by Seedy Sanchez on Thursday 14th October 16:12

[Sgt^Roc]

If cars are dangerous with has nobody ever been killed by a parked car? Of course not it's when the drivers get in that the problems begin, and of course it's not just the driver’s actions that cause accidents. but what do you do about it, well what do you do about it, make a decision based on the statistics and research and then implement it, not stick speed cameras up every where because it happens to be the only device available. I agree appealing to peoples emotions is flawed, for a start not every is guaranteed to read/take notice, those who need to listen will most likely not. Again it’s a shame that yet again this government has decided to use a cheap option to added to road safety and not dip into the millions it’s already fleeced and make a proper considered approach that is not only acceptable but feasible