F1 racing to make roads safer?

To help launch the United Nations' Decade of Action for Road Safety, the Formula One community is carrying the road safety message to circuits worldwide.



The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's FIA Foundation has established a global safety campaign called "Make Roads Safe" to gather public support to tackle road deaths by:

• Calling on governments and the United Nations to commit to a ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’
• Supporting a $300 million, 10 year, global Action Plan to help improve road safety in developing countries
• Calling on the World Bank and other multilateral and bilateral donors to ensure that at least 10% of their road budgets are dedicated to road safety measures

The international coalition behind the "make Roads Safe" campaign includes Transport Canada and our client and neighbour, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation.

Following the example of Michael Schumacher and Sir Frank Williams, the entire F1 racing community has embraced the safety message. From the Australian Grand Prix onward, all F1 teams will be displaying the "Make Roads Safe" logo and/or tagline.



But will a safe driving message resonate with fans who show up to watch drivers reach speeds of up to up to 360 km per hour? Especially when "street racing" has been identified as a front-burner social issue?

According to FIA, the UN's Decade of Action for Road Safety was a direct result of their awareness-building efforts: "With road deaths set to double in the next 10 years, this landmark resolution will pave the way to help halve the number of deaths over the next decade saving five million lives."

I wonder if NASCAR will be next to embrace a road safety message. Or at least focus on making safer left turns?

Slow down, eh?

Yesterday, the Winnipeg Police Service launched its "Just Slow Down" campaign to reduce traffic injuries and deaths by trying to convince drivers to reduce their speed.

The feature of the site is a "Webisode" featuring a short melodrama about a group of teens on their way home from playing basketball, and an impatient businessman tearing up the road. Of course it ends in graphic tragedy.

The video, and the PSAs, can be viewed at this link. Unfortuntaley, the Winnipeg Five-0 have decided not to make the videos shareable through YouTube or other social media. While there is some user-generated content, the site itself is pretty rigid.

According to the site:

"While there are a variety of factors that may cause a collision, speed is deadly. Faster speeds exponentially increase vehicle damage and the seriousness of injuries in a collision. In fact, 1 out of 5 collisions result in serious injury or fatality."

Just Slow Down seems to focus on vehicle vs. vehicle collisions, particularly at intersections. A few years ago, I was doing work with Transport Canada of vehicle vs. pedestrian collisions. They gave me even more eye-opening stats similar to these ones at their Safe Kids Canada site:

"Children are more likely to be struck by a car in areas with higher speed limits. In fact, there is a direct correlation between an increase in vehicle speeds and the increase of the risk of injury. A pedestrian struck by a car traveling at 50 km/hr is eight times more likely to be killed than a pedestrian struck at 30 km/hr. and even small reductions in speed can be significant. For each 1.6 km/hr reduction in average speed, collision frequency is reduced by five per cent. Reducing vehicle speed has been proven to be effective in preventing crashes and reducing the severity of injuries. At a speed of 30km/hr, vehicles and pedestrians are able to co-exist with relative safety, which means that drivers have sufficient time to stop for pedestrians, and pedestrians can make better crossing decisions."

A 1997 study by another client, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), found that approximately 5.4 million Canadians admitted to excessive speeding.

Speed kills. People need to be reminded of that. So this is an important initiative for Winnipeg. The video may not be the most compelling bit of social marketing I've seen this week, but I hope at least next time Winnipeg Police Service will take notice of Embrace Life's decision to produce an elegantly simple PSA and share it with the world.