A powerful road safety campaign that launched on Western Australian television screens last night (April 22), highlights the human side of death and serious injury on our roads.
In ‘Closer to home than you think’, a man on the street (Francisco) is asked what he thinks is an acceptable number of people to die on the roads in a year. He answers 70.
The man is overcome with emotion as 70 members of his family walk towards him, illustrating that road crash fatalities are not just statistics, they are people who leave behind loved ones just like him.
Francisco then changes his acceptable number of road deaths to zero.
The television campaign did not use actors, as the behind-the-scenes video reveals.
Francisco said he thought he was participating in an in-house training video for the TAC (Transport Accident Commission in Victoria).
“When you see your family and you link that to the road toll, it becomes very personal,” he said. “I saw my wife and she was emotional too.”
The Western Australian Government has adopted the campaign for use after it ran successfully in Victoria and New South Wales.
A survey of Victorians who had viewed the campaign, showed that 90 per cent believed the community should be aiming for zero lives lost on the roads.
The campaign will run in metropolitan and regional WA from April to June 2018.