Was it Really an Accident?

Accident or Crash?   Cars collide every day. Vehicles are damaged, sometimes people are hurt, and tragically, lives are lost. But are they crashes or accidents? A growing movement seeks to reframe car accidents as crashes, and with good reason. According to the NHTSA, 94% of car crashes are caused by driver error. Those aren’t accidents. Calling them accidents takes the blame away from drivers, instead of encouraging them to take responsibility and change the way they drive. It's the Law Advocates around the world are seeking to change the mentality that crashes just happen. Drivers need to learn that they are at fault, that safe roads start with them. In some places, it’s becoming the law to call crashes what they are. In Nevada, the word accident was changed to crash in dozens of state laws, while NYC policies state that we must “no longer regard traffic crashes as mere accidents.” More than 28 state DOTs have followed suit. Safer Roads What about just creating safer roads? Install some speed humps, put speed display signs in, won’t that stop crashes from happening? The truth is that cities do have to do their part to create safer streets. Engineering roads that are safer for all users is an important aspect of keeping drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians safe. But ultimately, the key component of safer streets is the driver behind the wheel. Even a slight distraction away from the road puts everyone in danger. Distractions With an endless array of apps, music streaming, and messages beckoning today’s drivers, it should be no surprise that fatality rates are on the rise. Every distraction, digital or otherwise, affects driver’s perception response time (PRT). Anytime a driver encounters something unexpected, she must detect the object, decide whether it’s a hazard, choose how to respond, and then act. Driving is a complex activity that requires complete attention. Almost all crashes can be avoided. But drivers need to try.

Go Ahead, Text And Drive

The business savvy know that no matter the catastrophe, there's always a way to make money. When a Toronto billboard for Wathan Funeral Home seemed to be encouraging people to text and drive to help drum up business for the funeral home, drivers were understandably enraged. 

Angry motorists who saw the billboard and googled the funeral home to protest the horrifying message found a company web page with this message:

If you're here, you've probably seen our "Text and Drive" billboard. And if you have, you probably came to this website to tell us what horrible people we are for running an ad like that. And you'd be right.

It is a horrible thing for a funeral home to do. But we're not a funeral home.

We're just trying to get Canadians to stop texting and driving, which is projected to kill more people in Ontario this year than drinking and driving. That's right. More. And while most people wouldn't even think about drinking and driving, over half of Ontario drivers admit to reading texts while behind the wheel. That's more than half of the drivers on the road today risking their lives, their passengers' lives and the lives of their fellow motorists and pedestrians.

Which should make you even madder than our billboard did.

The billboard was in fact a brilliant, albeit dark, marketing campaign to remind Toronto drivers what's at stake when they choose to text and drive.

Shock value marketing is nothing new but this campaign managed to do it without the blood and horror often used with a simple reverse psychology message.

What a powerful reminder to stay safe behind the wheel.