Scare tactics...road safety.

Today at my school, we had a fireman come in to give us a lecture on road safety...being 16, with some people 17 already it sounded fine.

Now, it did mention graphic images, which I assumed would mean some nasty injuries received by people...but no it went much much further.

No, we were shown around 30, if not more dead people. Almost all of them showed the face...which annoyed me terribly by the way, because any one of us could very well have known the people in these pictures.

We were shown (Without going into much detail) peoples ankles destroyed, a man laying with his intestines spilling out next to him and a man who had been decapitated (granted a star covered the neck, but it was still gory). Just to mention a few, everybody felt sick by the end of the assembly and some people had to leave during it. Some people were shaken up badly enough to not want to get on the school bus to reach the first lesson.

Now, aside this was the way the firefighter made it sound as if this was the way ALL crashes occured. Yes, he kept saying speeding would make it worse, but he implied these types of injuries would occur regardless which is simply not true. This is not even true off all high speed crashes...

He even decided to show us how the air bag can injure you, showing us graphic pictures of airbags which contained a gas that burnt all the moisture on your face, and of people and had recked their eyes when they made contact with it.

The last thing he left us with, after being tactfully stopped by a teacher from showing more pictures... Was that 1 in 4 people aged 17 to 25 would die in a car crash, now I cannot confirm nor deny this statement, but I cannot believe it is true either.

It only dawned to me after that this seemed to be comprised entirely of blatant scare tactics...would anyone agree, or not.

I can go into more detail via PM, though these forums are frequented by young people, so I do not want to go into much more detail here.

scare tactics no matter how crude do work. Im sure the pictures of the dead victims would have had family consent for them to be used in such a way. If it stops people speeding and driving dangerously i dont have a problem.

Oh yes family consent sure, but I know people up and down the country, it could easily have been any of those people I saw, it wouldn't have taken long to blur a few faces...

Driving safely! You really did need to be there, but the way he put it nobody wanted to get on the bus with a safe qualified driver, and some wouldn't get on. You quite literally felt sick after it, and people were very really scared on that bus journey, fear filled humour was the only discussion.

So yes, it may work, but it worked just as well at putting me off EVER driving, because around a quarter of the images he showed us were from people who had done nothing wrong.

I hated those things during high school. Week before Spring Break every year somebody would come in and give the "Drinking and Driving" speech. At the beginning of the year all the students who had parking passes had to go to a lecture much like the one you talked about. I also loved how they threw in half truths or outright lies. I remember they threw some stat saying there were 8,000 crashes a year in my state where the driver was high. A 10 minute google search showed that it was closer to 5,000 and 95% of the time they were also drunk.

Aye, it was the same, lies that alot of epople would accept, lies that worked to get the message across, and lies that worked too well. But still lies, or at least the way it was implied was lies.


And even so, it was also the way it was handled...'here you go, you feel completely sick and you've seen more dead people than some will se in their entire lives...now go and do your A level coursework' I could have thought of much better ways to get this message across.

[edit on 6-11-2008 by StevenDye]

believe it or not alot of people are idiots. The only thing alot of people understand is hard brutal facts that are drummed into them. Showing photos of dead people is shocking yes, but it is designed to say "look what happens when you speed, you either end up like this, or make someone else end up like this". FACT.

Why sugar the pill? Molly Coddling pussyfooting around the brutal facts of dangerous driving and speeding will ultimately leave young people dis-illusioned. They will have nothing in their sub-conscience when they choose to drive home drunk. Whereas hopefully the haunting faces of victims may well deter them from ever contemplating such a thing.

But it wasn't based around facts, he only gave about two or three supposed facts, and I am not sure I believe those.

He gave the message that pretty much sounded like if you crash you either: die quickly, die slowly, sit in agony whist the abulance takes a long time to get to you, hecome paralysed for life. No matter what you do, even if you are wearing a seatbelt and driving within the speed limit.

He showed worst case scenarios and made them sound like that was the absolute norm for any kind of crash, his message did not work as intended. It scared people of driving or getting in any type of vehicle, but nothing more.

We'll, even though it seems like scare tactics, to a paramedic watching the same video's, it would seem like reality. No not all crashes happen like that, but you always have to keep in mind the best and worse case scenario of any event in your life so you don't go out into the world a reckless fool. Since driving specifically affects more than just you, I think its good that we have people coming to show us the possibilities we may not have taken seriously, especially if we are more focused on our excitement of being new or fairly new drivers. If it was someone you know, well, then make sure you drive well; otherwise you might be adding someone you know to that video. I think thats the whole point to the videos.

[edit on 11/6/2008 by psychedeliack]

But thats my point, the way he put it, it doesn't matter if you drive safely. Even if you survive the crash your air-bag is going to do its darned best to kill you off.

It really is one of those things where you HAD to be there, like I said...even the teacher who had invited him in the first place had to stop him... The only message I got from that assembly was 'If you drive, then you will probably get killed in some painful way or another'

Welcome to the adult world.

When I was in high school, we had tese assemblies... Then it was 3 fatalities per 1000. He looked out to the audience and told us within a yaear 3 would die in auto accidents. Sure enough, 3 of my classmates were killed in separate accidents within a year. Hard reality sucks, but is a fact of life.

Remember when you get behind the wheel of a vehicle, those faces... those faces could very well be loved ones.

Be careful out there. I do not want yours ,or mine, to be one of those faces.

Yes, crude images do work, they are ment to make you feel sick, thats the affect, but I agree faces should be blurred just incase somebodies dead brother appeared up or something, it wouldn't be nice.

They are a THINK advert in the UK, which shows a rib punchering into a lung to describe what actually kills you when your not wearing a seat belt, its not bashing about externally, its internal damage.

I can understand why you feel the way you do. First let me say I have been a volunteer firefighter for 20 years plus and some of the earlier years I was the Rescue Captain of that volunteer fire company.

Rescue situations was part of my specialty and I can honestly say over that time I have responded to at least 1000 car accidents. I have seen it all, there will be visions and smells that I will take to my grave.

I have been involved numerous times in speaking with school children, from K1 -12. Different ages, different discussions. I have spoke to many 15 through 18 year old students about the dangers of driving, or should I say the possible results?

We, (the fire company) officers put together a program for this particular issue, teens, drinking, speeding and driving. But at no time did we ever present any type of graphic pictures. We might have spoke of seeing things that we'll never forget, but never what we had seen.

The school administration should have set perimeters of what should have been allowed, period. But there to I become a volunteer, if I were paid I wouldn't have a job. Using extreme scare tactics went way overboard.

I can honestly say, I do know what you seen and the sad part you will never forget. Someone can get the point across by showing several severely wrecked cars, not what's inside.

Don't hold ill feelings, one day you might want to become a volunteer firefighter. Like everything else, it has its ups and downs.

raiderrock

Better to watch it on a monitor then to witness it in person,when I was a kid seatbelts were optional ,remember seeing people who went through the windshield,sight like that stays with you forever,made me think twice

People drive like idiots. Every day, I wonder how most people on the road got a liscence. It is dangerous and deadly and not just to you. The fact that you are upset because you might have seen someone you know in the pics is petty and stupid. You did NOT, so get over it. Cry about stuff that really did happen, like people actually dying because no one takes driving as seriously as they should.

I'm not upset that there was a possibility fro someone in the room to know one of the people, that was a side issue.


To the people who mention seatbelts... He went into great detail about how they could kill you just as easily, either by cutting through you if twisted, or stopping you quick enough that your aorta is pulled free of the heart.


I do not deny what he showed us does happen, the pictures are proof of that. However what he did was take some of the worse cases, and made them sound like they were the effect of everyday crashes. If he had shown us the very same images and then said, 'Now admittedly these injuries are the effects of very bad crashes' No instead he made it sound like he saw this every single day. Even though only 57 peopole died in my county in the past 2 years as a result of a car crash.

reply to post by StevenDye



So just because you have low deaths in your county from traffic accidents you should get treated differently?

I am sorry, but you should get too see even more horrific images of what a couple thousand pounds of metal can do to the human body.

Scare tactics are there for a purpose. They are there to make you think before you push through that red light, or play silly road games with the friends.

Instead of complaining about what you are shown, be thankful that people care enough to inform you of what "could" happen to you each and every time you start your car.

We have become a desensitized nation.. sometimes we need to see the graphic aftermaths thats happen on a daily basis.

Not paying attention or just shouldering off what has been shown to you could lead you to be #58 in your county.

A driver of 16 is 10 times more likely to wreck in their first year.. just remember that.

No we should not be treated differently, but we should not be lied to in the name of safety either.

I have seen 1 of the terrorist beheading videos (On accident mind you, the footage still haunts me) So these are in no way the worst things I have seen.


But when he tells me that a quarter of my year will be dead by the time I am 25, I call 'lies'. Perhaps he was just a bad speaker, but he never once gave me the message don't speed, just don't ever drive on a road...

Originally posted by StevenDye
No we should not be treated differently, but we should not be lied to in the name of safety either.

I have seen 1 of the terrorist beheading videos (On accident mind you, the footage still haunts me) So these are in no way the worst things I have seen.


But when he tells me that a quarter of my year will be dead by the time I am 25, I call 'lies'. Perhaps he was just a bad speaker, but he never once gave me the message don't speed, just don't ever drive on a road...

I assume by "year" you mean grade... actually those statistics are rather close.

If you have a graduating class of say 100.. statistically yes a quarter of them could be dead by the time you hit 25.. do some research.

Don't take this the wrong way, but if my child had written a post of this kind (which feels like you just don't believe that many bad things happen on the road everyday), I would rethink my decision on letting you have the keys to the car this Friday night.

No he wasn't being a bad speaker he was TRYING TO SCARE YOU!!! Obviously you are still in school and feel indestructible (I did as well), but Car accidents are the most common killer followed by falling, poisoning, drowning and burning.

This is not going to change your perspective on it, and I know its not... I am just glad I don't live where you drive with this type of thinking.

Yes I mean grade, I am English.

I do not feel indestructable at all, I have been very close to death, and belived myself close to death at other times. Now, you say those statistic could wel be correct, and perhaps they are, though I did not realise the number were that high. Judging from the way he spoke of other things, that just kind of hit a nerve.

Don't take what I am saying the wrong way, I never intend to speed, not wear my seatbelt, drive drunk or any of those things. Out of other peoples saftey more so than my own.

I am simply saying i think he went further than was necessary, as another poster said pictures of destroyed cars with the stories would have been much better in my opinion. Though I would still accept the pictures if he had described the situation better. He made no distinction between a crash at 20 miles an hour and a crash at 100, all he did was tell you a crash would do this to you (then showed pictures etc).

Then he went on to tell you you didn't have to be doing anything wrong at all for this to happen to you. He put me off driving at all as much as anything else...

More people come out of a crash alive then dead, but you would belive the opposite after his assembly.

Scare tactics do not work. They don't even affect behavior significantly in the short term. When trying to change behavior, the best approach is a balanced approach that involves providing facts about the subject. They need to teach safe driving. Providing consequences is helpful, but scare tactics in and of itself will solve nothing. Programs like this are ineffective and pointless.