Skip to main content

New road safety VIDEO message from France and Finland

March 3, 2015
New road safety videos made in France and Finland are giving strong messages on road safety. The new French video, launched in February, shows in bleak, close-up images the impact of road collisions on several individuals who suffered life changing injuries, and their families. It follows a number of increasingly shocking films released in recent months that have included a class of primary school children wiped out by a car, a fake ‘funeral’ for speeding motorists and a film released by police showing the moments leading up to a real, fatal motorcycle collision.

The Finnish clip, released this month in an English version as part of a campaign on distracted driving, takes a markedly different approach. Using uplifting music, a powerful voiceover and a sequence of positive images of people using their phones in everyday life, its final frames show an accident avoided, accompanied by the simple message ‘When you drive, just drive’.

Related Content

  • Distracted driving report from European nations
    April 16, 2018
    There are now calls from right across Europe to increase education, enforcement and penalties for distracted driving. Mike Woof reports Surveys across Europe have revealed worrying attitudes to the use of mobile devices while driving, according to a report by the European Transport and Safety Commission (ETSC). Campaigners are calling for better enforcement, higher penalties, technological solutions and education to raise awareness of the risks. A survey in the Czech Republic found that 36% of drivers a
  • Driving safely to cut risks for road users
    August 24, 2015
    Regulations in France covering driving have become tougher. In a bid to tackle distracted driving, French drivers are now banned from using hands-free phone kits that use headsets while at the wheel. This follows research showing that the use of hands-free kits is only slightly less dangerous than holding a phone in the hand while at the wheel. French drivers are also forbidden to eat, apply make-up, read a map or listen to very loud music when behind the wheel. Meanwhile headphones or wireless earpieces ar
  • Road safety is an EU priority
    March 2, 2012
    The preparation of the new EU Road Safety Policy for the next decade will take place during Spain's presidency of the EU. Patrick Smith reports. An the past 10 years, half a million people have been killed on European Union roads, with road crashes costing an annual €160 billion or 2% the EU's GDP.
  • AECOM seatbelt and phone use trial expanded
    March 8, 2024
    More police forces in the UK are joining the National Highways’ trial of safety cameras that automatically detect motorists breaking seatbelt and mobile phone use laws.