Warning: graphic video embedded

Katarina - posted on 08/28/2009

I'm praying for that little girl's family and that the Mother gets well and is able to deal(for lack of a better term) with her daughter's death.

Katarina - posted on 08/28/2009

That video def. hit home. That baby was the end for me, I didn't watch the rest of it. I agree. It hits adults more then I think it'll hit teens. When I was in Highschool, every year they did a mock car accident outside the school. We would hear the crashing from our classrooms and then run outside and see the "accident." They always used our classmates and it was always terrifying, even though you had seen it the year before. There would be "blood" everywhere and all necessary emergency vehicles would show up and take the students away. Some covered with sheets over their heads.



On a different note. A two-year old girl was killed this past weekend by a drunk driver. Her mom is in serious condition and in hospital. They were in a crosswalk and he drive into them(it was an 18 wheeler). The pictures they showed in the paper was of the little girl under a sheet, still in her stroller. In our national paper it showed a Paramedic crying in the background. It was so sad to read and still sits with me. I cried reading the article. What a shame.

Sharon - posted on 08/27/2009

Thats funny Katie - I only saw it that one article. Nothing on the news or from friends, lol. Guess I'm the spazz in my little circle being the dramatist?

Katie - posted on 08/27/2009

I'm glad to stick to your guns about that kind of stuff Sharon. I work in a music/entertainment store and see WAY to many parents with a "I don't give a shit attitude". They do make restrictions for good reasons even though most people ignore them.
About this video-I really do feel the more realistic the video the greater impact it will have in preventing driving stupidities. The day you posted this on COMs I noticed this video popped up everywhere...the news, numerous friends FB pages, even my mom mentioned in during our phone call!

Sharon - posted on 08/27/2009

OH jean! Thanks for the added video!! I think we'll hit that one next week..... I think he's had enough of teen mortality this week, lol.

Sharon - posted on 08/27/2009

LOL Katie my kids - my oldest - isn't allowed to watch those gore fests. I informed all his friends, my mom and FAILED TO TELL HIS UNCLE, my brother. Ladies, lol never assume your 30+yr old brother will heed the label on the box or common sense to not let a 11 - 14 yr old watch those types of movies.



They are still banned in my house - is it a double standard that I watched gore fests Halloween 1+ and The Omen, Friday the 13th etc when I was his age and younger but he isn't allowed? LOL I can't bear to watch them now.

. - posted on 08/27/2009

Katie - posted on 08/26/2009

I don't think this video is too graphic at all--at least compared to the movies kids are watching these days. I really do think this is exactly what teenagers in highschool need to see. It gets people talking and spreads the word. We had similar videos shown as well as a totaled car from a real drunk driving accident that lived on the front lawn of our school months. IMO-this is a fantasic idea and every teen needs to see this.

JL - posted on 08/26/2009

I agree Sharon that it pushes adults to talk more to teens and others about the reality and consequences and that is the way the message will get across .Not through teens watching the video but by adults watching and taking a serious message to others.

Sharon - posted on 08/26/2009

Quoting Joy "the historian":

 I don't think the shock and gore video will have the impact it is meant to have on teens BUT I do think it will have an impact on adults.

that is the conclusion I have come to. 

Look what its done already.

I've talked to my son about it.  You talked to your neighbors daughter.  Awareness is already up.  I had to talk with my son more.  Eventually he got around to saying that getting in trouble bothered him.  He COULD NOT picture himself as one of the dead or maimed.  that sort of bothers me.

And we'll keep talking about it.  I guess the video has helped us at least.

Sharon - posted on 08/26/2009

Honestly - I usually can't hear an ambulance because my music is up so loud. I don't use my cell in town, unless I'm parked. I have to drive on a low traffic highway to get into town - its a straight road, not much traffic - I feel ok to talk on my phone then, but not text or dial. I hang up as I approach town.



I honestly think my kids are more distracting than the cell phone. Between the occasional fights, the demands I look at their drawing, grades, new book, etc WHILE driving - I always tell them I can't - I'M DRIVING! then there are the "mommy whys" why are there so many poles?

how does electricity go through wire?

what IS electricity where did it come from?

can we use lightening then?



Trust me with 3 of them in the car - and so many years apart - they really come up with tough questions. we talk alot and some debating goes on. I don't see how its different than being on the phone. another point I rarely talk on the cell phone with the kids in the car - THAT is to much of a distraction.

JL - posted on 08/26/2009

My problem is that it is so gory that it really does not get the point across in a serious manner to the target audience..teenagers. As an adult it got to me and made me physcially sick but I don't talk and drive and I never text drive. In fact I cannot stand when people do and usually I honk and curse them out....I know I am so mature. Anyways I asked my next door nieghbors teen daughter what she thought and she just said gross and that was it. There really wasn't an impactful thought due to the PSA. She took the idea of being arrested far more serious and the idea of having her phone and driving priveleges taken away made her really stop and think but the PSA was more like a horror movie to her than reality. I don't think the shock and gore video will have the impact it is meant to have on teens BUT I do think it will have an impact on adults.

Joy - posted on 08/26/2009

I don't own a cell phone. When I did have one, I never used it while driving. Never. In fact, I made a point to turn it off when I got into the car and if I didn't and it rang while I was driving? Oh well. I see no reason for anyone to be on the phone at all while driving. NOTHING can be THAT important that you HAVE to dial and talk to someone right THAT minute, and don't even get me started on texting while driving. I have a friend who does that and I won't get in the car with her. She's offered to come take my son for the day to give me a much needed day off and I say "no thank you" because I don't want him in the car with her either. The phone in general is relatively new, compared to the time there have been civilized human beings on the planet. We did just fine without cell phones before. Although they do come in handy sometimes, there's no reason to use them while driving. Hands free you say? Even that is a distraction. It occupies one ear that you may need to hear an ambulance coming from behind or to hear tires screeching that you may need to pay attention to. There are so many other distractions in cars that I just personally feel like cell phone usage in vehicles should be illegal period. Radio. Passengers. Outside distractions. And now people stick a plug in one ear WHILE all that other stuff is going on and they TALK to someone else??? Doesn't make sense to me. If you NEED to talk to someone that bad when you're in your car, pull over. Get off the road that I'm driving on with my son. That's my take on it.

Shannon Cassidy- - posted on 08/26/2009

Thats very hard to watch I just wish it would wake people up that do stupid things like that. I see people putting make up on , trying to make turns while talking on the phone I even saw a man driving on the highway looking at what looked like papers as if he were on his way to a meeting . I told my husband God Help the person who is in front of him.

Sarah - posted on 08/26/2009

I think the video is hard hitting.....and that's a GOOD thing. Sometimes people need shock tactics you know?
The bit with the little kid and the baby had me crying.
Definitely a good idea to get the message across.

Tracy - posted on 08/25/2009

I think all these videos are hard hitting but sadly the ones it should be affecting don't get the message. Although its illegal in Australia to use a mobile while driving we saw a teenage girl swaying all over the road on the highway texting. I was not driving and held my breath as we passed hoping she would'nt hit us, Luckly she had stopped as we where passing she put her phone down. Maybe the fine or penalty needs to higher or made to meet victims of such a crime.

Erin - posted on 08/25/2009

It's already illegal in Australia to use a mobile phone while driving, but plenty still do. I'm all for videos like this being shown. Yes, they're hard to watch, but they're meant to be.

Katherine - posted on 08/25/2009

That is brutal-sent me the message loud and clear. The baby....OMG......THAT bothered me.

Sharon - posted on 08/25/2009

damn I used to have a picture of a young woman who was decapitated in a horrific car accident. whoever took the pictures "stole" them. they were on scene but didn't dare to get to close but in one you can see half her face/head is sheared away and back at a very unnatural angle. I did not show that to my son. He is affected by stuff differently than most kids.

Jeannette - posted on 08/25/2009

This video affected me more than my teenagers. They recognize a message that is geared toward teaching them a lesson, and they don't take it seriously. They'd have to see footage or photos of an accident that they thought was real. I showed them a pic, and it could have been photo shopped, of a guy killed because he was cut in half by an 18 wheeler. It said that it happened because the guy was texting.
It affected me though. I wear a wireless ear piece usually, and hand the phone to one of my kids/husband if I need to share info right then while driving.

Sharon - posted on 08/25/2009

I have to say the death on the tracks videos and death on the highway videos we were shown in highschool were never this graphic. The actors and speakers were stilted in speech too.



This however was just so real. I think it disturbed my son. He isn't allowed to walk & text, he isn't of driving age yet. He will frequently try to walk & text - he can't do it. It drives me nuts.



He hasn't done it, that I've seen, since July when I reamed him a good one for it. Not only could he get hurt, but heck if he just trips while texting it could cost him his phone. AND if he does get hurt - he'll lose his phone anyway. He has plenty of time to text his girlfriends on the bus ride home, in the truck, sitting at starbucks in the grocery store, he doesn't need to be walking & texting.

Amanda - posted on 08/25/2009

the video clip hit me, i get the message and agree with the message, but unfortunately i don't see it having an effect on the people it should! there have been 3 or 4 texting-while-driving-car-accident deaths around where i am in the last few months and i feel as though too many people are thinking "i'm careful about it, it won't happen to me" so unfortunate! same with drinking and driving..... pisses me off actually, how dare someone be so reckless with someone elses life! the part of the video with the lifeless baby made me sick!

Krista - posted on 08/25/2009

Yeah, this was posted on facebook today. I saw it. Sure brings the message home about texting while driving. I don't usually even TALK on my phone for fear of an accident.

Melissa - posted on 08/25/2009

It is a bit graphic, but sometimes this is the best way to get the point across. You can say "don't text and drive" until you're blue in the face and it will never leave the lasting impression as something like this. It's a snap back to reality, and makes people (at least for me it did)realize that your eyes belong on the road. Not your phone, doing make up in the mirror, fighting with your kids in the back seat and so on.

Konda - posted on 08/25/2009

I didn't like those type of videos when they showed them to us in school 30 years ago....I still remember vomiting when they showed a picture of a drive running in the back of an 18 wheeler carrying some steal rods and the driver hit them and was decapitate.

Having lost a sister 6 years again a car accident, and she was just 18, the video will more than likely give me nightmares tonight.....I need to make a mental not to not open anything that says "graphic" in the title.

Charlie - posted on 08/25/2009

i was fine until i saw the baby , then i burst into tears .
I had been to 6 of my friends funerals by the time i had finished high school all but one were car accidents .
This hit home for me .

Iris - posted on 08/25/2009

I saw many similar videos in England when we lived there. They put them in the commercial breaks. They always get to me. I think they are well worth watching for both teenagers and adults. They actually showed this one on CNN yesterday.

Jenifer - posted on 08/25/2009

Seemed like a pretty well produced video actually, probably better than the psa's I saw as a teen. A family friend was killed by a teenager texting while driving a few years ago, so personally, I do see a need for videos like this one. I think the more graphic videos are likely to have the most impact, especially with texting, since I'd imagine police would have a hard time ticketing it. PSA's maybe be the best way to increase awareness.

. - posted on 08/25/2009

It will be illegal soon in New Zealand to use your cellphone while driving.

Amie - posted on 08/25/2009

I don't see this as any different than the ones I was subjected to as a teenager about drinking and driving. Those were pretty harsh too.

Sometimes you need to be though with teenagers who think they are invincible.

Sharon - posted on 08/25/2009

I didn't even watch the whole thing before posting it.



The moist squelching noises as their heads snapped around, the girl screaming, and the to still baby and the toddler begging mommy & daddy to wake up have me crying.



My 14 yr old just watched it he says...

"it was a weird video"

"what was weird about it?"

"I don't know it was just weird. what was the point supposed to be about?"

"its a warning against texting & driving or to pay attention while texting"

"oh"

"what did it mean to you?"

"don't text and drive, duh"

"what will you do if one of your friends is texting while driving?"

"tell him to pull over - I don't want to drive wit' 'chu"



........................