A dramatic new short film that uses gun imagery to highlight the dangers of reckless driving has been launched by the Road Safety Authority.
The online video, entitled Loaded Weapon, is different from previous installments by the authority as it focuses on the role of the passenger as much as it does on the driver. In addition, the video does not have any disturbingly graphic scenes of the aftermath of collisions seen in some recent advertisements.
The film's creator and script writer, Richard Lahart - an undergraduate science student in University College Cork - said that he consciously left out disturbing scenes of violence in the hope that people would see the film several times.
"Most of the ads that are shown are shockingly gruesome. They show the crashes and all the people mangled. I didn't want any part of that in it because as soon as people see that ad once they switch to a different channel," he said.
"If the video isn't gruesome, people won't try to avoid it and they will see it over and over." He added that the most important message he wanted portrayed was that passengers have a responsibility while travelling in a car and that their actions can cause a collision.
The short film shows a group of young male friends going for a drive at night. It becomes increasingly clear that their behavior in the car is reckless, a message that is re-enforced as shots of them loading and pointing guns are revealed whenever they carry out actions such as going too fast or unbuckling their seat belts.
The film ends with what are unmistakably the last seconds before a crash and the sound of a gun shot.
The video is available online only and has already received almost 24,000 hits on YouTube since it was uploaded just some four months ago.
Chief executive of the authority Noel Brett, at the launch of the film earlier today in the Project Arts Centre in Dublin's Temple Bar, said that it was appalling that 52 young people had died on Irish roads so far this year.
"When I say 52 young people it is just a number, 52 people, but if you imagine 52 empty chairs this Christmas Day, if you imagine 52 empty chairs New Years Eve, just imagine what that means to those families."
Mr Brett added the multiples of people injured should also be remembered and that every one of those collisions were avoidable.
"We are making great progress and yes young people are making huge strides in this country but we have a huge amount more to do," he said.
The film is currently being shown on YouTube as well as on the authority's website and on the website of Setanta Insurance Services, which was a partner in the 'Keep Drama off the Roads' competition that inspired the video.